MINDBENDER
by Starlight1
Summary: Hitoshi Shinsou has graduated from UA and been working for Japan's Intelligence Agency as a covert operative for seven years already, with Aizawa as his supervisor. Join him in his adventures as he attempts to solve a case involving a murderous cult in Japan.
1. (PART ONE) The Prospect

**PART ONE**

 **1 THE PROSPECT**

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"We've found a new prospect," said Shouta Aizawa.

Hitoshi Shinsou leaned back in his chair. They were seated in Aizawa's cramped office on the tenth floor of the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate. Afternoon sunlight was streaming into the room, and outside, the faint hum of traffic could be heard. Aizawa's two cats, Nariko and Tamako, were sprawled in a nearby chair.

"Oh?" Shinsou said.

"We've just received the brief because the Quirk was only registered in January this year," said Aizawa.

Shinsou lifted his eyebrows.

"January?" he said coldly, "How old is this person? Are you pairing me up with an infant?"

"It's a long story," said Aizawa. He pushed two folders stuffed full of papers forward. "Some of the background is here."

Shinsou eyed the folders warily. "Am I supposed to read through all that?"

"Most of it is the Iideyama massacre," said Aizawa.

Shinsou looked up.

"I've heard about that," he said slowly, "Half the town and nearly all the heroes present died …"

Aizawa nodded. "Our prospect was working as a hero in that village. She wasn't listed among the deceased, but our scouts weren't able to locate her when they visited."

"She?" said Shinsou.

"Yes, 'she'," said Aizawa, "It's a woman. Anything wrong with that?"

Shinsou, who had been leaning forward, leaned back in his chair again.

"Nothing," he said. "Just that the dynamics of working with women are different. So, she's missing? How does that give us a prospect?"

"Well, I thought you could go there and look for her," said Aizawa.

Shinsou stared at him.

"It's a very rural village," said Aizawa, "The scouts said the villagers were close-mouthed when they went there. They didn't want to talk about the massacre, or why the girl had disappeared."

"You want me to go on a wild-goose chase searching for a missing hero," said Shinsou.

"It'll be easy for you," answered Aizawa, "With your Quirk, you can get all the information you want out of them in minutes. Besides, it's a sidekick for you, after all. You can assess whether or not you can work with her when you find her."

Nariko gave a small leap and settled in Shinsou's lap. Aizawa waited until the cat had settled down, before continuing.

"This seems to be the best prospect we've found so far. You're well aware that we've already assessed seven people, and all weren't suitable. Either their Quirks didn't have the features we needed, or their personalities were too erratic or indiscreet for intelligence work, or hero work was totally alien to them."

Shinsou was nodding impatiently. "I can continue solo," he said.

"We've already discussed that," said Aizawa. "We're reaching a dead end when it comes to the Hikari case. We need someone who can get people in and out easily for you to do the interrogation. If you try it alone, there's not much chance it'll work."

Shinsou frowned. He pulled one of the folders over, and began to flip through it. "There should be a stats page, at least."

"It's the first sheet," said Aizawa.

Shinsou pulled it out.

"There's no photo," he said, " 'Misa Arakawa'. Age, twenty? Why was her Quirk only registered in January?"

"As I said, it's a long story," said Aizawa. "The village is in a very remote and isolated region. There was only one hero agency responsible for a huge tract of land – most agencies are located in urban areas, where there's more crime. Usually if one starts an agency in such a rural place, it would be almost impossible for it to survive – there are too few villains to provide any profitable work. The reason this particular agency survived was because they had a teleporter."

Shinsou looked interested.

"Yes," said Aizawa, "one of the heroes could translocate not only himself, but other people as well. The agency could cover a vast area of land that way – they only had to receive a call about a villain, and the teleporter could transfer all the heroes to the desired location. In that way they were able to dispose of villains over a large area. That was how the agency was able to survive."

"Fascinating," said Shinsou, "but I don't see what this has to do with Quirk registration being done at age twenty."

"Well, the villagers there have a lax record of registering Quirks," said Aizawa, "and if someone doesn't register a Quirk, the Quirk Registration Authority simply assumes he is Quirkless.

"The hero agency owner was a man called Nobuyuki Kusano. He ran the agency with two licensed heroes, but he also employed unlicensed villagers to join in the hero work – whom he could pay a pittance. Those whom he assessed to have suitable Quirks were roped in. The villagers feared him, because if they crossed him he would refuse to protect their households. Apparently he even made many of them tithe to him regularly, in exchange for protection."

Shinsou was looking disapproving.

"Yes, he became quite rich," said Aizawa. "Not only did the Iideyama villagers tithe to him, but villages from the lands around as well. This nonsense went on for a long time, because it was so remote and the authorities didn't detect anything during audits– none of the villagers dared tell on him. Things came to light last year, though, and not only was the tithing done away with, but he was finally forced to get all those unlicensed heroes licensed. In the process those heroes who were found to have unregistered Quirks had to register them as well. That's why your prospective partner surfaced."

Shinsou scowled. "They should have jailed him."

"They were going to," said Aizawa, "but he was out on bail initially, and then the massacre happened."

He leaned forward and looked intently at Shinsou. "There's something else you should know, Shinsou. Arakawa was Kusano's daughter."

Shinsou was surprised. "But the name… "

"Adopted," said Aizawa, "She and the brother, both. The brother was the teleporter. Kusano adopted them at age five because he thought their Quirks would be useful for the agency. He made them do hero work from the age of twelve."

"Twelve?" said Shinsou, appalled.

"I very much doubt they were adopted out of love," agreed Aizawa, "Kusano didn't even bother to change his daughter's surname to his own, although he did it for the boy. He was consumed by his desire to keep the hero agency going. No doubt you will uncover the remaining sad details when you reach Iideyama."

There was a silence for a few moments.

"What do I need to know about the massacre?" asked Shinsou.

"Most of the details are in those folders," answered Aizawa, "The village was attacked by the villain Inferno. He had some grievance against Kusano ... came to the village in the dead of night and set half of it on fire. Killed all the heroes, including Kusano … I doubt many of these heroes had ever had to handle a villain of this calibre. Arakawa's brother died. Arakawa herself was not in the village that night, for unknown reasons. Otherwise she might have died as well."

Shinsou was frowning at Aizawa. "The villain Inferno …"

"He got put away some weeks later," said Aizawa. "After the massacre, there was a concerted effort to track him down."

Shinsou sighed. He stroked Nariko, gently placed her on the floor, and began tidying the papers on the desk.

"I expect I'll be gone a couple of weeks," he said, getting to his feet, and gathering the folders up.

"Take your time," said Aizawa, "and, Shinsou – "

Shinsou had reached the door. He stopped, and turned and looked at Aizawa.

"Don't frighten the girl," said Aizawa, "I imagine what she went through may well have been traumatic."

Shinsou's eyes glinted. "I am frightening, am I not?"

"You are," said Aizawa, "Go easy on her."

.

.

.

 **NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR**

This is a story about Shinsou after he's graduated from UA and been working for Japan's Intelligence Agency as a covert operative for about seven years. He's a less combative and abrasive individual now, since he has already achieved his goal of obtaining a hero licence. He has become a consummate professional, and is now more mature and better at handling people.

The difficulty in writing this fanfic is, of course, that Shinsou is due to make a return to the manga later this year, and so a lot of what I have written may well end up inaccurate. He will probably be given a combat skill similar to Aizawa's scarves. I had to give him one in the story, and so I created a multi-thonged whip, which he switched to when he became an intelligence agent because he found it more convenient.

There are also cameo roles by Midoriya, Kendou, Tokoyami and others in some of the chapters. This was also difficult because Shinsou may well end up joining class 1A or 1B, and we don't know what his interactions with his classmates is going to be like. He may or may not establish friendships with some of them. I had to decide how he was going to behave toward them in the story, and I chose to be consistent with what has been observed so far, which is that he is generally hostile to most of those in heroics.

I had to make some assumptions about his Quirk that may or may not turn out to be true, e.g. that he can brainwash a room full of people when talking to them using a microphone, and that he can brainwash someone he is speaking to over a communications device like a walkie-talkie.

I'd thought of waiting until he had made his reappearance in the manga before publishing this work, but decided to go ahead and publish it now anyway and then perhaps do some rewriting if the errors are too glaring (Although I have to admit, once I've completed a story I normally don't like touching it again).

A comment on Misa's Quirk: it is essentially the X-man Shadowcat's power, except that she can activate and deactivate it in more detail. I chose it because it has been my favourite super power for a long time, and it worked its way surprisingly well into the story.

Mirio makes a cameo appearance in chapter 6 and it is assumed he has managed to recover his Quirk again. The same applies for whoever else in the fanfic might be going to lose their Quirks in the manga for whatever reason …

Some trivia about the names used: I cannot choose names the way Horikoshi does, but I wanted them to be meaningful to me, and so they are mostly taken from people I know or names I have come into contact with in my work in the atmospheric sciences. Hence, to name a few, Arakawa was actually taken from the Arakawa-Schubert cumulus parameterization scheme, Fujiwara from the Fujiwara effect in tropical cyclones, and Fujita from the tornado F-scale.

Tomonaga's name is taken from the physics Nobel laureate Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. Nobuyuki Kusano was my homestay host in Toyama (he is actually a very sweet guy), and Tanabe's name came from my friend Hiro whom I met when I was studying in England. Hideo was a character I liked in Lesley Downer's book _Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World._

I'd like to thank Naomi Ichikawa for giving me much advice on making the story more authentic, Japanese-wise.

This story is dedicated to all Shinsou fans, and I hope they will enjoy reading it while waiting for him to make his reappearance. Shinsou is a character I'm quite sympathetic to, and the fanfic pretty much expresses the kind of future I hope he will eventually attain.

Starlight

October 2017

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	2. Iideyama

**2 IIDEYAMA**

.

The village of Iideyama was a serene place, nestled among mountains covered thickly with pines. The houses consisted mostly of old, dark wood buildings. The streets were narrow, and bordered by small canals of running water which the villagers used daily for washing clothes and, in winter, removing snow.

Shinsou had located the local police station without any difficulty, but had found the police officers there as tight-lipped as Aizawa had described. He managed to corner one officer in a small side office, and brainwashed him, an elderly man by the name of Tanabe, who had been in the village for many years.

"Sit down," said Shinsou, coolly. "Now, respond to me as if we are having a normal conversation. Answer all my questions. Tell me about Nobuyuki Kusano's children, in particular the girl Misa Arakawa."

"I've known them since they came to live here," said Tanabe. "Kusano adopted them for their Quirks, about a year apart. He adopted them specifically to do hero work.

"He began training them to use their Quirks the day they arrived. By age twelve, they were proficient enough to assist the heroes. They were training most of the time, even when they started school. They would go for training or hero work once school ended."

"How did they perform in school?" asked Shinsou.

"Badly," said Tanabe, "because they had no time to study or do homework. Hideo-chan was a bright boy and usually managed to scrape through. But Misa-chan didn't do well. Yet the school promoted her to the next level every year. They were afraid of Kusano, you see. The school didn't even protest when the children were called away during school hours to do hero work."

Shinsou stared at Tanabe. "Did Kusano treat the children well?"

"Generally it was believed he didn't," said Tanabe. "We had no proof, but the children sometimes had bruises on them, and it was believed he beat them. The girl especially seemed unhappy. She tried to run away a number of times."

"Is that why the villagers here don't like speaking to outsiders …" Shinsou said slowly.

"Yes," said Tanabe. "We were ashamed. We knew the children were being abused, but we did nothing. We knew they were being deprived of a proper education, we knew Kusano was breaking the law by hiring unlicensed heroes, we knew he should not be making his children and also the unlicensed heroes do dangerous hero work. But we were afraid of him, and we knew if the hero agency closed down, there would not be another one … we needed the heroes. Strange villains come out of the mountains, and the police here are not equipped to handle them."

Shinsou was silent for a moment.

"They were close, I assume, the boy and girl," he said.

"Very," said Tanabe. "They were always together. Misa-chan took it hard when her brother died. Very, very hard."

"Where is she now?" asked Shinsou.

"No one knows," said Tanabe. "She didn't tell anyone when she went. There was nothing left for her here, anyway. Her brother and family were all gone."

.

.

Shinsou made Tanabe bring him to the place where Kusano's house had stood, before ordering him back to the police station. He stood for a few minutes, looking at the great gash of blackened earth in the ground. It was an extensive plot of land, and probably the house that had stood there had been a large and handsome one.

Part of the garden was littered with peculiar constructs : walls a few feet long, made of different materials – brick, wood, metal, concrete. Debris lay in a corner – rocks, large blocks of wood, metal plates, and other boulder-sized objects made of many different materials.

Shinsou examined the constructs, and then his eyes wandered over to a row of small cottages in the distance.

"The neighbours," he said to himself, "They would have known the family, they might know where the girl went ..."

.

.

The first two houses were empty. The inhabitants of the third, a middle-aged woman with two small children, didn't know the Kusano family personally, but had often seen Kusano's children training in the garden. Shinsou squeezed whatever information he could out of her.

"Kusano would sit in the garden, making the children train for hours," said the woman. "When they first came, I was still a student, I used to see them whenever I came walking home from school. Sometimes, I would stop and watch from behind the bushes. The boy, he could teleport – disappear and reappear again a distance away. Kusano would make him teleport across the garden – first a few metres, then further, and further. Then he made the boy hold objects and teleport them. When he was bigger, he began to hold on to people and teleport them too."

"What about the girl?" asked Shinsou.

"She could walk through walls," said the woman. "Kusano made her walk through so many different walls – first thin ones, then bigger ones. Then he made her carry different objects through the walls. Finally the walls were not thick enough, he made her sink into the ground and walk through that, different types of ground – soil, mud, clay, or the concrete pavement.

"She would get stuck often," added the woman. "She would move her body in but then not be able to get it out. She would cry and Kusano would shout at her then. Once, he left her stuck outside in a brick wall into the night. But her brother came out and smashed the wall with an axe and set her free."

Shinsou tried not to look disgusted.

"Could she move people through walls?" he asked.

"I think so," said the woman. "I got married and moved away after a while, and only came back here recently. But before I left, I saw Kusano was trying to get her to move her brother through the walls. He would use thin walls or piles of paper at first, so that if they got stuck it would be easy to free them."

At the fourth house, inhabited by a tiny, elderly lady with snow-white hair, Shinsou struck gold.

"Yes, I knew the children," she said, "I used to work for the family … cleaning and some cooking. The children would visit me too. They came here often, especially Misa-chan. Their father was so strict … they would come here to hide from him when he wanted to punish them."

Shinsou drew a deep breath. "Sit down," he said.

When they had sat down at the kitchen table, he said directly, "Do you know where Misa Arakawa is now?"

"Yes," said the old woman, "She was working … let me see … it was in the phone …"

Shinsou waited impatiently while she hobbled slowly over to a cupboard, brought an old, black mobile phone out, and slowly searched through it.

"Here it is – "said the old woman, but Shinsou had already taken the phone from her. The lone message there read, _"Sasakawa-san, it's Misa. Are you well? I have found a job. Thank you for all the help you have given me. I hope that one day I can come back and visit you."_

Shinsou frowned. He said to the woman, "Did she ever call you? To say where she was?"

The old woman shook her head.

Shinsou sighed. He put his hand to the back of his neck and thought for a bit, and then keyed the following message into the phone:

" _Misa-chan, how are you? In which town are you staying? What is the name of the place where you are working? Let me know. I would like to come and visit you."_

He read through it once, then pressed the [send] button.

He waited a few moments, as if hoping an answer would come immediately, but the phone remained silent. He placed the phone on the table, and then faced the woman.

She might as well talk to me while we wait, he thought.

"Tell me what the children were like," he said.

"They were mischievous, of course, when they were small," said the old woman, "but they became more serious when they grew up. Hideo doted on Misa; he would do anything she wanted him to do. I used to give them sweets and things … try to give them a more normal life. They would sneak here to watch TV. Sometimes, Misa-chan and I would cook together."

Shinsou looked at her. "Do you know where Misa was on the night of the massacre?"

"She quarrelled with Hideo that evening," said the old lady, "She didn't say what it was about, but she was so upset that she skipped patrol that night and let Hideo go alone. She regretted it later, of course. She wept for a long time when she saw his body. Later she said to me, _'So many nights we've done patrol before and nothing ever happened_ '."

"Did you see her before she left the village for good?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes, of course," said Sasakawa, "she stayed with me after the massacre. She had nowhere else to stay, the villain had burned her house to the ground."

"Why did she leave?" asked Shinsou. "Weren't you willing to let her stay with you?"

"Of course I wanted her to live with me," replied the old lady. "But the villagers, they were against her, you see. They had become angry with her because she did not come to protect them on the night of the massacre. They blamed her for all the deaths. She could have helped, she could have entered burning houses and saved people."

"That's true," said Shinsou, "still …"

"The people here won't accept her any more," said Sasakawa, "that's why she left. Of course, she also found it hard being here now that her brother was gone. Everything in the village reminded her of him."

Shinsou was silent for a while. Then he said, "She must have been very bitter."

"She was," said the old lady. "Before she left, she said, 'I've spent my whole life protecting the people here. But because I made one mistake, they've all turned against me ...' "

Shinsou said no more. He got up, paced around the room, and looked out of the window.

"I ought to call Aizawa and update him," he said to himself.

He glanced at the old lady's phone, but it was still silent. Then he remembered something.

"Do you have a recent photo of her," he said to Sasakawa.

"Yes, yes, there is one here …" the old lady picked up the phone and began to look through it.

"Here," she said, handing the phone to Shinsou. Just then, it beeped.

He quickly scanned the message first.

" _Sasakawa-san, I have a job in a café called Shiroibara. But there is no need to visit me. It is in Ikoma town in Toyama, too far for you to travel to. I am sorry I have not kept in touch. Please do not worry about me, I am fine. Let me know all your news."_

Shinsou's eyes gleamed in triumph. He noted the details down, and then examined the photograph.

It was a photo of the old lady, standing with a young man and woman, dressed in traditional Japanese garb, and looking happy enough. The boy was handsome. The girl had long, dark hair caught back in a ponytail, and she was smiling.

"We took that during the New Year," he could hear Sasakawa saying, "They are beautiful, aren't they?"

Shinsou found himself looking at the photograph for a long while.

"Yes, beautiful," he said at last, "But they were born under an unlucky star."

.


	3. Misa

**3 MISA**

.

Misa took her cell phone from her bag, at the same time checking that she had placed her clothes inside. She tugged at the sides of her uniform, which was a bit tight. As usual, the sight of the bag and clothes depressed her. "I sank so low, back there," she thought, "I was nothing more than a common thief."

The razing of her father's house had left her quite destitute. Sasakawa-san had given her some money for clothes and toiletries, but the old lady was poor, and Misa would only take a minimal amount from her. She had tried to find out what disaster relief she could claim – insurance from her father's house or grants from the government, but these took time to process and with everyone in the village against her, she had wanted to leave as soon as possible. She had stolen all the other things she needed – a suitcase, more clothes, and school books. It had been easy enough for her to phase in and out of the shops in the middle of the night, and take what she wanted.

She tried to tell herself that she was merely claiming payment, since she had not been paid a cent for all the hero work she had done over the years; but deep down inside, she felt ashamed.

When she left Iideyama, she had decided that she was done with hero work.

"I'll get a normal job," she said to herself, "being a hero has been nothing but misery."

However, she had never passed her high school exams. Her plan was to find some temporary work, enough to pay for her to retake the exams, and then somehow continue working and put herself through university. But she had discovered that temporary jobs paid little, barely enough to pay for her rent and other necessities.

On her way to work that morning, she had begun considering returning to hero work.

"It's all I know how to do," she thought, drearily. How fortunate it was, though, that she still had her hero licence; it had been in her wallet with her on the night of the massacre.

She fingered the phone. "I should be working," she thought, "but maybe I can just spend a few minutes surfing the net to see where the nearest hero agencies are."

A sharp smack suddenly sent the phone spinning to the floor. Misa cried out, and then a hand was grasping her left ear in a vicelike grip. It was Yazawa-san, the café manager.

"Why are you idling?" she snapped, "you should be working!" She released Misa's ear, and picked the phone up.

"No, give it to me!" cried Misa, darting forward. But Yazawa-san was locking the phone in a drawer. In went the key into her pocket.

"Get to work," she said angrily, "if you work properly today, you might get it back later."

Misa drew a deep breath. She had been in the wrong, after all. She bowed to the woman.

"Yes, Yazawa-san. I apologize," she murmured.

She picked a tray up, and went outside to serve the customers. Once Yazawa-san had left the kitchen, though, she went over to the drawer when no one was looking, phased her hand through it, and took the phone out.

"I can't lose this phone," she thought. It contained photos of Hideo; all that she had left of him.

She found herself serving beer to a group of four men, the kind of customer she dreaded the most. They were becoming drunk and were rowdy, especially a short, squat, tubby one with a moustache, whose hands tended to wander to places they shouldn't. As she was placing the beer on the table, she felt something pinch her in the behind.

"What! – " she gasped. The men roared with laughter.

Misa went white with anger. She seized the man's hand, phased it into the dining table, and left it there.

"Fujiyama!" shouted the man, tugging at his hand. "My hand! You witch! Take my hand out!"

Yazawa-san had come over. She glared at Misa.

"Did you do that?" she snapped.

"He groped me," said Misa angrily.

"Take his hand out at once!" barked Yazawa-san.

Misa went red. She pulled the man's hand out of the table. The men began jeering at her.

Shinsou was seated at a table nearby, watching.

Yazawa-san began bowing and apologizing profusely to the men. "I'll get another waitress to serve you," she told them.

"No, no, we want her!" the men shouted, pointing at Misa.

Yazawa-san turned and, glaring at Misa, gestured angrily at her to continue serving them.

The men proceeded to make as much trouble as they could for her, purposely dropping food on the floor, spilling their drinks and shouting at Misa to serve them.

At one point, Misa came over to Shinsou's table to remove his empty plate.

"Waitress, clean this up!"

Misa turned to look. The tubby man had picked up a sauce bottle, and was squirting sauce copiously under his chair.

Misa turned back, and closed her eyes as if to shut the sight out. "Oh, why was I born," she said, despairingly.

She opened her eyes, and saw Shinsou looking at her with an amused glint in his eye. Taking his plate, she stalked off to the kitchen to get a cloth.

"Waitress, hurry up!"

She brought the cloth out. The tubby man gave her an oily smile.

"Oh, I can't move my chair," he yelped happily. "You'll have to reach under to clean it!"

Misa began wiping up the sauce. The man suddenly farted loudly, and she cringed in disgust.

The man had not tucked the ends of his shirt into his pants. Positioning herself so that no one could see what she was doing, Misa continued slowly wiping the sauce up with one hand. She carefully phased the other hand through the seat of his chair and pulled the shirt ends into it. Then even more carefully, she gently eased parts of the seat of his pants into the chair. Finally, she phased the legs of the chair about an inch or so into the floor of the café.

She finished cleaning the sauce up, and hurried back into the kitchen.

The man wanted to go to the washroom. He tried to push his chair back, but it was now anchored to the ground. Then he tried rising to his feet, but something was holding him down. Finally, he heaved himself up.

There was a loud, ripping noise as the man's shirt and pants tore. The man uttered a roar of fright and tried desperately to cover himself, while the other customers in the café screamed in a mixture of delight and horror at the sight of his undergarments.

The café was in an uproar. Yazawa-san came running out of the kitchen, and seeing the spectacle, went back in and dragged Misa out.

"You're fired," she said, her voice shaking with rage, "This will be your last day. Don't come back tomorrow."

She hastened over to pacify the men, but paused to shout at Misa, "Don't go off shift this afternoon! You'll stay until tonight for no extra pay! Fumiko has called in sick!"

Misa looked at her, her face expressionless. She happened to glance in Shinsou's direction, and saw that he was looking at her. She turned, and went back into the kitchen.

.


	4. The Cafe

**4 THE CAFE**

.

It was dark when Shinsou returned to the café that evening. A bell jangled as he entered the door, and a waitress who was cleaning the tables in the front room looked up to see who had come in.

She bowed to him and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't take orders after eight – thirty."

"It's only a few minutes past that," said Shinsou.

The girl looked into his face and quailed slightly.

"The manager isn't here tonight," she stammered, "Let me ask my colleague."

She disappeared into the kitchen. Shinsou went over to the door to listen.

"It's only just past the time, we can still entertain him," Misa was saying, "We've turned people away before, and they were hungry. One told me there isn't any other place near here where they can get a meal."

"But all the other customers have left, and so the chef decided he could leave as well," said the other waitress.

"If he's not fussy, it'll be OK. They've trained us to prepare some of the meals," said Misa.

"But my mother is sick. I need to leave early. If we turn him away, we can get all these dishes done and leave. Anyway, it's your last day, why bother?"

"If you'll help me a bit with the dishes, I'll serve him."

"We should turn him away. He's scary-looking. He was here during lunch too."

"Oh, not those beer people again?"

"No, the guy with the purple hair."

Shinsou could hear footsteps, and he retreated a few paces from the door. Misa poked her head through, and her eyes widened slightly when she saw who it was.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, sir," she said, coming out and leading him to a table.

"I hope this isn't too inconvenient," said Shinsou.

"No, no, it isn't," said Misa, setting the menu before him.

The kitchen door opened, and the other waitress came out. She had changed out of her uniform into her usual clothes, and was hurrying toward the entrance.

"I'm sorry, Misa-chan, I have to go," she panted, "My mother just called, she wants me to go home at once."

Misa walked over to the kitchen door and looked in. Dirty dishes were still piled at the sink.

Her heart sank. She quickly took Shinsou's order, and prepared the food. She had placed it in front of him and was halfway back to the kitchen when he said, "Don't go. Stay here and talk to me."

Misa stopped and turned around. Shinsou was looking coolly at her.

"Don't go," he repeated, adding persuasively, "I'll help you wash the dishes if you'll stay and talk."

She couldn't help feeling amused at his offer. She hesitated a moment, then walked back to his table. Never mind the dishes, she thought, after all, I may never have another chance to talk to him.

She seated herself opposite him, and there was silence for a few moments as they stared at each other across the table. Then Misa said, "I couldn't possibly let you wash the dishes, sir. But I don't know what you'd like to talk about. Perhaps you could let me know what you're interested in."

"I'm interested in you," said Shinsou, with disarming frankness, "We can talk about that."

"Me?" said Misa, taken aback. She sat back in her chair. "There's nothing much to say about me."

"Oh, but there is," said Shinsou smoothly, "I was here during lunch. That's a powerful Quirk that you have."

"So is yours," she said, without thinking.

Shinsou was caught off-guard for once. He shot her a swift look of surprise.

Misa, seeing his expression, hastened to explain. "I recognised you the first time you came in. I saw you long ago, on TV. At the Sports Festival."

Shinsou relaxed. "The Sports Festival? That was so many years ago."

"Yes," she said, a little sadly. She had been ten at the time, and she and Hideo had watched it together.

"Most people who know about my Quirk are usually more wary when talking to me," remarked Shinsou.

She looked at him. "I didn't think of that," she admitted.

"Aren't you afraid of what I could make you do?" he asked, with a small smile.

"What could you make me do?" she asked cautiously.

"Well," said Shinsou, a gleam in his eye, "what if I were to force you have sex with me?"

Misa looked at him. She knew he wasn't really serious, and she somehow also sensed that he was testing her. She said simply, "Shinsou-san, you're an attractive man. You wouldn't need to use your Quirk if you wanted to get a woman to make love to you."

Shinsou seemed amused by this answer.

"I should like to see more of your Quirk," he said.

"My Quirk?" Misa thought it was a peculiar way to want to be entertained, but she got up, phased through the wall of the café, came back in, and then stood in front of him with a questioning look on her face.

"Can you phase objects as well?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes." She picked a chair up, and carried it through the same wall and back in again.

Shinsou nodded slowly. "What about people?"

At this, she came up to him and offered her hand. He looked at her a moment, then took it in his. He felt a most peculiar feeling, as if the space within him was now occupied by someone else as well, and moreover someone who had some unknown measure of control over his body.

She looked at him. "Does it feel strange?"

He gave her a wry look. "Is some part of you inside me?" he asked.

"When I phase an object, it becomes an extension of me," she explained, "I can activate or deactivate my Quirk in each part of it. For example, if I were to phase us through the wall, I would not put the soles of our feet completely into phasing mode, so that we could still walk on the ground and not fall downward."

He had expected she would walk both of them through the wall again, but instead she said, "Let's go up!" She sprang upward, pulling him with her. They were moving upwards, through the roof of the café, and suddenly it was dark and the night sky was around them, the wind was blowing, and the town with its lights lay before them.

Shinsou was astonished. He looked at the surrounding landscape, and then turned to her. He could see her face near his, watching him in the moonlight.

Then they were slowly falling … down, down, until they were going through the roof of the café again, and the brightness of the café lights hit him as they left the darkness outside.

She let go of his hand. He stood for a few moments, trying to recover from the surprise of the experience.

He looked at her curiously. "I wouldn't have thought you could fly."

She laughed. "Well it's not really flying, more like levitating … walking on air, controlling the molecules of air around you …"

"Impressive," he said softly.

She smiled. He indicated that she be seated, and as he took his place opposite her, asked, "Do you like your job here?"

Her smile faded. "Well, you were here this afternoon," she said quietly, "I haven't got a job any more."

"Yes, I saw that," he said, "Well, I have a job offer for you."

She looked at him in surprise.

"I hope you realise that I'm speaking in confidence," Shinsou said, "I work for the Intelligence Directorate in Tokyo. We've been looking for some time for someone with permeation abilities like yours."

Misa tried to understand that. "Like mine?"

"Yes," said Shinsou, "It's a bit difficult to explain in detail now, but we collect intelligence on various criminal organisations. That means we often have to infiltrate their premises. We need someone who can get people in and out of buildings stealthily."

Misa sat still, looking at Shinsou and trying to absorb what he was saying. A job, out of the blue, dropping into her lap.

"We will provide training, of course, and there will be a probation period," added Shinsou.

She was frowning slightly. "What exactly does the job entail?"

"Basically what I mentioned," said Shinsou, "You'd be phasing people in and out of various places without being detected. You'd probably have to reconnoitre and familiarise yourself with the place before the actual operation, of course, and do other preparation work, familiarise yourself with the Quirks of villains you might encounter, and so on."

She was silent, thinking. Shinsou, seeing she was preoccupied, proceeded to consume his food, which had remained untouched till then.

Something suddenly occurred to her. "How much is the salary?"

Shinsou mentioned a sum.

She nodded, then was lost in thought again.

Shinsou said at length, "We need help from someone like you badly, Arakawa-san. I hope you will seriously consider the offer. We've been having a deadlock in a particularly urgent case, and you might be able to help us break it. It would be saving lives, ultimately."

Misa gave him a quick look, and then said slowly, "How do you know my name?"

"I've been looking for you," answered Shinsou, "We checked with the Quirk Registration Office for all those with permeation-type Quirks. So far we've not found anyone who can help us … they can phase through walls, but some can't phase other objects through walls, much less people."

Misa stared at him for a few seconds. Then, she sighed.

"If you're from Intelligence, you must have checked my background," she said.

"Yes," said Shinsou.

"Then you must know my situation," she said, "You know …I never asked to be a hero. I've never been happy being a hero. It was a lot of pain and drudgery. My father … I can't even talk about him. And our village – it's not like elsewhere, where people think it's wonderful to be a hero. The villagers are simple people, farmers … they don't admire us. Heroes were just functional … we were supposed to get rid of villains. There was no honour or glory in what we did … it was like … like … it was like … _pest control!_ "

She laughed, rather bitterly, at the absurd comparison, but Shinsou did not smile. He looked at her soberly, and continued to listen intently.

"When I left Iideyama I decided I didn't want to do hero work any more," said Misa, "It's true that this morning I was thinking about changing my mind … I need a job that pays more than what I've been getting. I was planning to study for my high school certificate … yes, I'm twenty and I still haven't got it. But now, suddenly confronted with an actual job offer … I need a little time to think about it, think about whether I really want to do hero work again …"

"Certainly," said Shinsou, "I'll be around a couple of days more. Here's my card. Call me, whether it's a week later, or a month later, even a year later."

She accepted his card, and sat, staring at it for a while.

"You know, when I saw you at the Sports Festival, all those years ago," she said slowly, "that was the first time it hit me, how much people elsewhere might desire to be a hero. It never occurred to me. It was a revelation. That's why I remember you so well."

Seeing that he had finished his meal, she stood up and began to clear the table.

"I'll help you with those dishes," said Shinsou, rising as well.

"No, there's no need, I can do them," said Misa.

"I insist," said Shinsou, adding, "You know I can make you let me."

Misa stopped, and looked up at him.

"You're a dictator!" she said, accusingly.

He gave her a small smile.

"I am," he said.

There was a pause as they started on the dishes, and then she said carefully, "If I accept this job, will I be working with you?"

"Yes," said Shinsou, gravely.

They looked at each other for a few moments, and then both suddenly laughed.

"Well then, I have got some serious thinking to do," said Misa, shaking her head.

She was silent after that. Shinsou, watching her out of the corner of his eye, noted that her expression had become sad, and wondered what she was thinking.

He wasn't sure how it happened. It seemed to flow out of her, like a shimmering liquid, which then crystallised into a form in front of her: a young man, smiling, wearing what looked like a hero costume, holding his hand out to her. An image of Hideo Kusano.

Misa went dead still. Her face became ashen. She dropped the plate she was wiping, and automatically held her hand out to the young man.

"Hideo," she whispered. She touched his hand, but then the illusion began to dissolve.

"No, don't go,"she said, a hint of panic in her voice; but the vision had disappeared. She stood in shock, staring at the place where her brother had been standing. Then she slowly turned, and looked at Shinsou.

"Did you do that?" she asked, very quietly.

Shinsou was also startled. He put his hand to the back of his neck.

"I don't know," he whispered, "I've never done it before."

Misa was trembling. She went over to a table and sat down, and leaning her elbows on the table, held her head in her hands as if she was in pain.

"He looked so real," she said softly, "As if he was really there."

Shinsou went over to her. "Misa –"

She shook her head.

"Please leave," she said, without looking at him.

Shinsou looked at her for a moment, then turned and, without a word, went out the door.

.

.

"Hello," said Aizawa, "Aizawa here. Who's that? Shinsou? Where have you been all this time?"

"I found her," said Shinsou, "It looks promising. She can phase people through solid objects."

"Good," said Aizawa, "Did you offer her the job?"

"Yes," said Shinsou, "She's considering it."

"Try to be persuasive, Shinsou," said Aizawa, "We need her rather badly."

"I need to know what other sweeteners you can include, then," said Shinsou.

"Like what?"

"From what I gathered from her neighbour in Iideyama," said Shinsou, "She was left penniless because her house was razed to the ground. If you could arrange for some cheaper accommodation, it might encourage her to accept the offer. Tokyo is expensive."

"Cheap accommodation?" said Aizawa, "There isn't any near the Directorate."

"There are some rooms on the top floor of the Directorate," said Shinsou, "with beds for staff working overnight or on urgent projects. She could take the small side-room for a while."

"I'd have to raise the matter with management," said Aizawa, "She could pay a token sum for a period of time, but they might not agree to it until she's passed her probation. However, you can tell her we'll push for it."

"OK," said Shinsou. He hesitated, and then said, "There's something else I should mention. She seems quite traumatized by the death of her brother. It might affect her performance at work."

"Well, we'll be giving her the usual psychological assessments," said Aizawa, "Has she shown any signs of being unstable?"

Shinsou paused.

"I somehow drew an illusion of her brother out of her mind," he finally said reluctantly, "it sent her into a state of shock."

He thought he could hear Aizawa muttering at the other end.

"How did you do that?" said Aizawa.

"I don't know," said Shinsou, "It just happened."

"When was this?" said Aizawa.

"Just now," said Shinsou.

"Well, where is she now?" demanded Aizawa, "Where are you?"

"She's in the café where she works," said Shinsou, "I'm in a car across the road from the café. I'm going to wait until she leaves to make sure she's all right."

"I told you not to frighten her," said Aizawa.

Shinsou was becoming irritated.

"I'll fix it," he said shortly, and ended the call.

.

.

Shinsou had hardly put his phone away when he saw the man. The street was deserted, with the exception of the shadowy figure skulking outside the café, making its way down an alley to the rear of the building. Shinsou recognised him immediately: the tubby man who had been bullying Misa earlier that day.

In a flash, he understood. It was that man's Quirk, he thought. He must have been looking in the kitchen window, trying to think of a way to get back at her because of what she had done to him during lunch.

He got out of the car, and drew his whip out. He had had a different combat skill in the past, but had opted to use the whip when he began working in the Directorate, because he was often in disguise and the whip was compact and could be hidden easily somewhere about his person.

The whip was multi-thonged. He flicked it out, and the thongs effortlessly coiled themselves around the man, slamming him against the wall of the café. The man let out a squeal of protest.

Shinsou casually slammed the man against the wall a few more times, then let him slide to the ground. He then placed his foot on the man's neck, pinning him down.

"What are you about?" he said coldly, "Are you trying to enter the café and hurt her? Haven't you done her enough harm already, today?"

The man made a gurgling noise in his throat as Shinsou pressed his foot downward. The whip thongs were still coiled about his tubby body, and he struggled to free himself.

"It's unfortunate that someone as malicious as you has a Quirk like that," remarked Shinsou, "Is that how you normally use it? Waiting till your victim looks unhappy and then letting them see their object of sorrow in concrete form?"

He lifted his foot slightly, and the man gasped.

"Don't – hurt – me –" he wheezed, "Meant – no – harm – only pay – back – humiliation – lunch – "

Shinsou pressed his foot down again and pulled at the whip. The thongs tightened around the man's body, and he thrashed about desperately.

Shinsou removed his foot, and pulled the whip thongs off the man.

"Get up," he said, coldly.

The man slowly rose to his feet, wheezing and clutching his throat.

Shinsou flicked the whip again, and before the man could move, the thongs had enwrapped him again up to his neck. Shinsou slowly pulled at the whip, tightening it. The man's eyes bulged in horror.

Bending forward, Shinsou brought his face close to the man's.

"Take some advice from me, my friend," he said menacingly, "Forget that you ever came across that waitress inside the café. For you have not, and it might be that if you ever harass her again, there will be a reckoning to be paid for your treatment of her. I shall not forget you, I assure you."

He loosened the whip slightly, and the man, finding his throat free, began blubbering.

"Mercy!" he wept, "I promise! I'll never go near her again, I swear!"

Shinsou removed the whip, and the man fell to his knees, still weeping and wheezing.

Shinsou lifted the whip threateningly. The man gave a small whimper and shot to his feet, eyes bulging in horror. In a split second, he had turned and fled down the alley to the road.

"That should get rid of him," thought Shinsou. He tucked the whip away and walked round to the front of the café. The lights were still on, but there was no sign of movement. He waited for a few minutes, then pushed the front door open, making the bells jangle in protest, and went in.

Misa looked as if she hadn't moved at all. She was sitting, as still as stone, her eyes closed, her head in her hands.

Shinsou placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Misa," he said.

She continued to sit still for a few moments longer, but then her lips moved.

"I'm in pain," she said indistinctly, "Help me. Help me, Shinsou-san."

Shinsou sat down next to her. I haven't tried this before, he thought.

"Talk to me," he said quietly.

There was a pause, and he wondered if she understood him. Then she said softly, "Yes."

Her eyes immediately opened and her face went blank.

"Take a deep breath," said Shinsou, "Relax. Feel calm. Forget that you saw your brother. Feel peaceful."

She sat there, her face blank, but she had become less tense and her breathing seemed easier.

There was a small couch in the corner of the kitchen. Shinsou said, "Stand up and lean on my shoulder. Walk over to the couch."

She was not very steady on her feet, but they managed to reach the couch.

"Lie back on the couch," said Shinsou, "Close your eyes. When I place my hand on your shoulder, wake up."

He waited until she had done this, and then released his will. He gently put his hand on her shoulder.

She started slightly, and opened her eyes. She stared uncomprehendingly at Shinsou for a few moments.

"Oh," she closed her eyes again, and then sat up. "Shinsou? … What … what happened?"

"You fainted," said Shinsou.

"Fainted!" she said, "No, it isn't possible … how could that happen … how embarrassing. I'm sorry."

"How are you feeling?" asked Shinsou.

"A little groggy," she said.

"Well, rest there for a bit," said Shinsou, "I'll do the dishes."

"No, you're a customer, I can't let you do that," said Misa.

"That's an order," said Shinsou, "You know I can make you do it if I want to."

Misa gave a small sigh. She lay back on the couch and closed her eyes.

"Dictator," she said, under her breath.

Shinsou smiled. He started on the dishes, but after a minute she sat up and came over to help him.

"I didn't give you permission to get up," he said sternly.

"I feel all right now," she assured him, "I can't let you do all this alone."

She was silent after that, drying the plates and keeping them away once he had washed them. Finally he said, "A penny for your thoughts."

"I was wondering," she said, "if, after seeing me faint, your job offer still stands."

"It does," said Shinsou.

"Well, then …" she paused. "I think that … I would like to accept."

Shinsou could hardly believe his ears.

"That's good news," he said, "but …are you sure?"

She nodded.

After they had kept the last of the plates away, Shinsou said, "I'm driving you home. Don't argue. The car's outside."

"All right," said Misa meekly, "Thank you."

The block of apartments where he dropped her off looked extremely old, the rooms small and slowly decaying. As she got out of the car and thanked him, he asked,

"Was there anything in particular that made you decide to accept the job?"

Misa hesitated for a moment, and then said, "You washed the dishes for me."

Shinsou was wondering if he had heard her correctly. "What?"

"And you helped me when I fainted," said Misa.

He looked at her, not comprehending. "You're accepting the job because of that?"

"Well, I might as well give it a try," said Misa, "It's true I desperately need a job, and the pay is better than anything I've ever had. Besides, you might discover in the end I'm no good and that you don't want me after all."

Shinsou still didn't quite see it. "So, what has that got to do with the dishes?"

She looked down at the pavement, cradling her bag against herself.

"You know, so far in my life, I've not been treated very well at work," she said quietly, "I just thought that since I now have a chance to have a job where I might actually be treated like a human being for a change, I ought to take it."

Shinsou looked at her for a few moments. Her face looked pale in the moonlight.

"So … you're taking the job because I was kind to you," he said.

She nodded.

"I wonder if Aizawa will believe this," said Shinsou.

She looked puzzled. "Who?"

"You'll find out," he said, and then he smiled. "I'm glad you'll be working with us, Misa-san. See you in Tokyo soon."

.


	5. Group Sigma

**5 GROUP SIGMA**

The sun was shining in through the window of Aizawa's office, much as it had been that afternoon several weeks earlier when Aizawa and Shinsou had had their first meeting. Misa was momentarily staring at Nariko the cat, seated as usual in Shinsou's lap, before calling her attention back to Aizawa.

"Now, Arakawa-san, we've just spent a few hours looking at what you're able to do with your Quirk, and as I said you've developed it rather well, due to the extensive training your father has given you,"Aizawa was saying, "I now need to talk to you about the unique circumstances under which you have joined us.

"New recruits usually go through a minimum one year's basic training, but we've hired you because we have an urgent case that we need you to help Shinsou with. We're planning to give you six months' customised training, after which we hope you'll be ready to go on your first assignment."

He looked at Misa, who nodded to show she was listening.

"The training will specifically target to prepare you for this particular assignment," continued Aizawa, "Firstly, we would like you to undergo regular exercises to strengthen and further develop your Quirk, and fine-tune your control.

"Secondly, we want you to develop other combat skills, because we know various criminal organisations are still trying to develop Quirk-nullifying drugs. Although the ideal plan will always be for you to complete your assignments without going detected, the unexpected often happens, and you may well need to defend yourself in the absence of your Quirk.

"You'll therefore be given instruction in hand to hand combat training, as well as the use of various weapons. You will also familiarise yourself with different types of explosives. You will be given an exercise regime that will put you in the best physical shape.

"A third area of training will come from our Support Division. You'll be trained to use various pieces of equipment, such as night vision goggles, and how to set up spy cameras, listening equipment, and so on.

"These will be your main areas of training. We will also give you some exercises to build up your mental strength. Some of the assignments may see you going through long hours without sleep and few comforts. You would have to be able to still maintain concentration despite fatigue and the possible threat of physical danger. We will give you tasks where your cognitive ability and resilience in stressful situations will be tested."

Shinsou was watching Misa with interest to see how she was taking all the information. He had actually given her very few details about the job, partly because it might have discouraged her from accepting it.

She met his gaze at one point, and her expression plainly said, "What have you gotten me into?!" However, in the next moment she had turned, and was looking attentively at Aizawa again.

"Shinsou will bring you around to the Training Department later to meet your combat and support instructors," Aizawa was continuing, "and he'll be overseeing your general training. He'll serve as a regular sparring partner for you, as well. We may also arrange for you to spar occasionally with the other heroes working in the Directorate, so that you can practise dealing with a variety of different Quirks."

Shinsou was looking at her.

"Focus on becoming proficient, as proficient as you can," he said, "Although you've done hero work for years and encountered a large variety of villains, the villains you're likely to encounter here are of a different category altogether. They're not petty thieves and small-time thugs. They're deadly, and they can kill without mercy."

Misa nodded soberly. "I have my work cut out for me," she thought.

"Any questions?" said Aizawa.

"Yes," said Misa, "Well, not really a question but a request. I'd like to have First Aid training, in case one of us gets injured …"

"Yes, that can be arranged," said Aizawa.

"And also," Misa continued, "About the assignment … well, whether I could be given more details about it …"

"That will come later," said Shinsou, "We'd like you to get settled into the training first. We'll brief you on the details when the time is nearer."

He placed Nariko on the floor, and she gave a small leap and rejoined Tamako, Aizawa's other cat, on a nearby chair.

Aizawa, seeing that Misa didn't have anything further to ask, went on. "One important thing I must mention. Ours is not a formal group within the Directorate. We're called Group Sigma, but our existence is not recorded anywhere. The only one who knows about the case we're working on is Fujiwara, the Director-General. So when you're going for training, or talking to other staff within the Directorate that you might meet, don't mention the assignment or even talk much about the type of training you're receiving."

"To most people, Group Sigma is just a temporary group set up to supervise new recruits," said Shinsou, "It's just an extra task for me and Aizawa. We're doing various jobs under Covert Operations, and I also sometimes help the police do interrogations."

"If anyone asks about your status, just say you're a general recruit going through standard training in Group Sigma under Shinsou and me," said Aizawa, "and that you have yet to be posted to a specific section."

Seeing the puzzled look on Misa's face, he explained, "Someone within the Directorate seems to have been leaking information. In the organisation we're investigating, we've had some men who were working undercover who've been discovered and killed."

"So until we find out who the spy is, if he exists, the Director-General decided it would be best that no one knows what we're doing," said Shinsou.

"Within the Directorate there's a lot of work that's confidential and we normally don't ask each other what we're doing, anyway," remarked Aizawa, "It would be considered very poor etiquette. But in this case, we have an added reason not to want others to know."

"I understand," said Misa.

"All clear?" said Aizawa, "Very well, then. Now, once you're ready, you and Shinsou will be a team. You'll have to work together. Get to know each other in the meantime. You'll have to rely on each other out there.

"I'll make it plain," he added, "don't become emotionally attached during your assignments. Don't get romantically involved with each other."

Shinsou was staring rather coldly at Aizawa.

"In case you've forgotten, Aizawa," he said acidly, "I have a girlfriend."

"That's immaterial," said Aizawa, "If you're working together you'll have to form some kind of bond. Just don't go falling in love. It would be the most irrational thing to do. It's happened before. The couple got into an argument while out in the field, and the communication went out the window. One of them died as a result."

"That may be true, but even so, how old do you think we are?" exclaimed Shinsou, visibly annoyed.

Misa was staring at Aizawa, her face pale.

Aizawa's phone rang, and he went outside to take the call. Misa stared down at the table, his words ringing in her ears.

"Aizawa hardly needs to remind me," she thought, bitterly. She remembered the last time she had seen Hideo alive, the angry words they'd exchanged, and the hurt on his face when he'd left the room. The next time she'd seen him, there was nothing left but a charred body.

"It isn't just that he died, but that he died so bitter in the end," she thought, "I let him down. Our quarrel would have been what was freshest in his memory. He would have fought the villain, aware that I should have been there, fighting alongside him. I betrayed him by skipping patrol. I should have been by his side, been with him when he died. But I didn't do my duty."

She must have replayed these thoughts in her mind a thousand times. She felt the tears welling up, and in a panic, tried to suppress them. "I can't cry here, of all places, in front of them, and not on my first day of work."

She was aware that someone was next to her, and guessed that it was Shinsou. She didn't look up.

"Thinking about Hideo?" she heard him say quietly.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Misa," said Shinsou, "look at me."

She turned her face to him. She knew he could see the tears.

"I know how much you loved Hideo and that his death must have been a great blow to you," said Shinsou, looking soberly at her. "Don't keep it all bottled inside. If you need someone to talk to, you can come to me. I'm going to be your partner, and I care about you. Trust me as I trust you. I would put my life on the line for you, if I had to."

She gazed at him, her eyes wide. Then something in her seemed to crumble, and burying her face in her hands, she broke down and wept bitterly.

Shinsou said nothing, but let her cry it out.

Eventually, her sobs subsided. "I'm sorry," she said, in a muffled voice, "I know … I've got to pull myself together ..."

Shinsou waited till she was calmer, and then said in an unusually gentle voice, "One more thing, Misa-chan. Hideo loved you, and whether the two of you had a disagreement or not, he would have wanted you to have a happy life. Not be a prisoner to your sorrow, as you are now."

She had stopped crying. She was sitting back in her chair with a subdued expression on her face, but she seemed to be trying to absorb his words.

"You're right, of course," she said at last, looking ashamed. "I know that too. I guess that … somehow some part of me wanted to keep hanging on, as if moving on would mean forgetting him …"

She saw that Aizawa was coming back into the room. Swiftly, she placed her hand lightly on Shinsou's arm, and said in a low, quick voice, "Thank you, Shinsou-san."

He gave her a small smile, and then Aizawa had come up to the table. He could hardly have helped noticing Misa's red eyes and swollen face, but made no mention of it.

"My apologies, Arakawa-san," he said, "I could actually have dismissed you before taking the call. If there are no more questions, then you might want to break for lunch. The staff cafeteria is on the second floor. Shinsou will meet you later to introduce you to your instructors."

Misa stood up, bowed to the two men, thanked them, and left the room, phasing through the wall instead of using the door.

There was a pause, and then Aizawa said, "She looked upset. I suppose I could have phrased things differently. I had forgotten about the brother."

Shinsou was also rising to leave. "Well, what do you think?" he said.

"All right, so far," said Aizawa, "We'll have to see how competent she is during training, but otherwise she seems serious and intelligent enough. Her Quirk is not identical to Togata's … she can phase other objects, for one thing. That makes the way she interacts with matter quite different. It'll be interesting to see how much more she can develop it."

He looked at Shinsou. "So, anyway… how did you eventually manage to convince her to accept the job?"

"Accept – ? … Oh, it turned out to be easy in the end," said Shinsou, "I washed dishes for her."

Then, seeing the puzzled look on Aizawa's face, he grinned, and hurriedly quit the room.


	6. Mirio

**6 MIRIO**

Shinsou brought Misa to meet her combat instructor later that afternoon. Her name was Iridium, and she was a tall, dark-skinned woman with a very forthright manner.

"No use of Quirks with me," she said. "And I don't care how seldom you might actually have to fight without your Quirk. People in my classes learn to defend themselves as if they have no Quirk. I'll teach you a range of weapons, and eventually you'll have to choose one you want to specialise in. There'll be shooting practice, first stationary and then moving targets. And you'll have to choose one form of martial arts. We'll let you try different types, and see which suits you the most. Later we'll also fight in different environments, you and I. The Simulation Complex is about twenty minutes' commute from here.

"I presume you'll be sparring with him as well," Iridium added, glancing at Shinsou, and then turning back to Misa. "Now, he uses a whip. You'll have to be physically fit and flexible to dodge it. I'll give you a list of exercises to do every day."

Shinsou also brought her to visit the Support Division, a vast laboratory run by Professor Hadron, a small, portly, bespectacled man who kept blushing when spoken to.

"Another new recruit, Shinsou?" he said nervously, bowing and going red in the face. "How nice to meet you, my dear."

Turning, he called out to two small figures at the other end of the room.

"Magnetron! Klystron! Come and meet our newest recruit!" he fluted.

The two figures came trundling over, and as they came nearer Misa saw that they looked like little robot people.

"They're so cute," she said.

"Those are the Oersted Twins," said Shinsou, "Be careful with Magnetron. He's very polite, and very brilliant, but he tends to get sidetracked. He keeps inventing all sorts of junk, some of it little to do with intelligence, and he keeps trying to market it to you."

The Twins were identical, except that Magnetron was pale metallic gold and Klystron silver in colour. They were only about four feet high. They bowed low to Misa.

"Standard training package, Klystron-san," said Professor Hadron.

Klystron began leading Misa to the other end of the room, but Magnetron followed and tried striking up a conversation.

"Arakawa-sama," he chirped in his piping voice, bowing, "Let Magnetron introduce you to a very useful piece of equipment. It is a force-field umbrella. It is designed to keep you dry in all types of inclement weather. Just place it around your neck and activate it, and you will be kept dry. It will work in the heaviest rainstorms and strongest blizzards. Even better, Arakawa-sama can place it around her neck, so she will have her hands free."

He held up a turquoise-coloured, golfball-sized object affixed to a chain.

"Magnetron-kun, go away," said Klystron, "Arakawa-san is not interested in umbrellas. She is going to look at spy cameras."

Magnetron ignored her. "It is named Mary Poppins," he informed Misa.

"Misa doesn't need umbrellas, Magnetron," said Shinsou, "Her Quirk is permeation. She can probably walk through a storm without getting wet."

This did not seem to deter Magnetron. To demonstrate, he hung Mary Poppins around his neck, pressed a button, and was immediately surrounded by a spherical halo of light. There was a crackling sound similar to that of electricity, and the others backed away.

"Magnetron-kun, please switch that off!" said Klystron, "You cannot use that as an umbrella. Your force-field will electrocute all the people around you!"

"Observe," said Magnetron, "It can even protect you from hailstones." He aimed a remote control at a tank near them, pressed a button, and the tank suddenly began spraying ice cubes at them.

"Magnetron-kun, stop!" cried Klystron.

Magnetron couldn't seem to hear them from within his force-field. Misa put out a hand and grasped Shinsou's arm, so that they were in phase mode and the flurry of ice cubes passed harmlessly through them. Klystron, with ice cubes bouncing off her, picked up a nearby paperweight and began banging it on Magnetron's force field to get his attention.

"I'll keep him occupied for a while," Shinsou said in an undertone to Misa, as Magnetron finally deactivated Mary Poppins, "Klystron will give you a quick orientation tour today, but Aizawa has also asked her to have a discussion with you about developing your Quirk."

As Shinsou walked off with Magnetron, Misa heard the latter saying, "Shinsou-sama, Magnetron will show you the stealth cloaking device he is working on. Magnetron has named it the Raptor. When activated, it will emit radiation that distorts radar beams. If you are on an aircraft, you will be invisible to radar. It can currently cloak a small private jet, but Magnetron plans to extend this to larger aircraft …"

Klystron gave Misa a tour of the laboratory, and then they had a long discussion about the latter's Quirk. She asked Misa to touch pieces of different materials and put them into phase mode, then ran a scanner over them to record their molecular structure and energy state.

"Magnetron will build something to help you fine-tune your Quirk control," she told Misa, "I will help design it. You should work on activating and deactivating different parts of the objects you hold.

"We will give you objects of different materials where the different parts light up when put into phase mode. We will also work on you being able to phase larger and larger objects."

As Misa went back to the table where Shinsou was keeping Magnetron occupied, she saw that they were playing with laser guns, trying to shoot a couple of small drones down. She heard Magnetron informing Shinsou, "Magnetron has named it Ronald. Ronald Ray Gun."

When they left, Shinsou was holding a rectangular object in his hand.

"He insisted on giving me his cloaking prototype," he said, and dropped the Raptor into his pocket.

.

.

Misa set herself to work with a will over the next few weeks. She was very glad that Aizawa had managed to secure a small room for her on the top floor of the Directorate. It saved her a lot of time because she did not need to commute to work, and it also made it convenient for her to go at any hour she wanted down to the gymnasium or other training facilities, even in the middle of the night. With her phasing ability, locked doors were no barrier to her. She got up early and went to bed late. She felt that she was progressing frustratingly slowly, and she was grateful that neither Aizawa nor Shinsou ever said anything discouraging.

Magnetron had made her the gadgets for her to practise her Quirk on. After a few weeks, Shinsou asked her how she was progressing in this area.

"We'd like you to work more on your indirect phasing," he said, "that means your ability to phase objects you're not in direct contact with, those touching the things you're in contact with."

She could already do this, to some extent. When she was phasing a person, for example, she would grasp his arm, but she also had to phase parts of him that were not directly in contact with herself, such as the shoes he was wearing, or a bag over the shoulder.

"The main thing we were actually thinking of you phasing is a car," explained Shinsou, "and if people get into the car, we'd want you to be able to phase them too. We don't know if this is possible, but we'd like you to work on it."

He brought her to see Radon, who was in charge of defensive and evasive driving techniques. After a long discussion, she and Radon worked out quite a comprehensive training programme. During the first week, she just sat in a car and tried to feel the different parts of it. In Iideyama she had been fond of riding Hideo's bicycle and had learned to control it enough to cycle through walls, but a car was larger and physically it was a lot more tiring phasing it together with everything it contained.

She spent a long time just feeling the engine and testing her phasing on it so that the combustion would still work. When she had worked that out, she had to partially deactivate her Quirk in the wheels so that they could grip the ground enough for the car to move forward.

The first time she drove the car forward, the back seat and all the contents in the trunk were left behind. And when she had mastered this somewhat, she tried phasing Radon who had gotten into the car, but when she put the car into phase mode, Radon promptly fell through the car seat to the ground with a loud thump.

.

.

After two months at the Directorate, Misa was looking out of her room window one night at the Tokyo traffic and thinking how different it was from Iideyama or even quiet Ikoma, when it suddenly hit her how much her life had changed. She had been so busy that she hadn't realised it.

"I'm not the same person I used to be," she reflected. She was grateful she had been given a chance to have a new life, and she was determined not to disappoint Shinsou and Aizawa, especially Shinsou, who had taken the trouble to track her down and bring her here, and whose sidekick she was supposed to be.

.

.

At the end of October, Shinsou introduced her one day to a smiling, muscular young man in a hero costume.

"Misa, this is Mirio Togata," he said, "Aizawa thought it would be useful for you to have a field training session with him tonight. He works in a hero agency, but he sometimes does some work for us here at the Directorate as well. He has a permeation Quirk, like you."

Mirio turned out to be extremely cheerful and friendly.

"Shinsou tells me you also have a Permeation Quirk!" he said, bowing and then also shaking hands enthusiastically. "That makes us like siblings, doesn't it?"

"I suppose you could say that," Misa said, laughing.

"But you can phase other objects as well! That's a whole new world to me!" exclaimed Mirio, "You must tell me about it! We can exchange tips on techniques and share our experiences!"

His face brightened even further.

"And then I must brief you on what we are doing tonight! This will take a long time – let's do it over dinner and drinks, shall we?"

"OK," said Misa agreeably, but then stopped short when she saw Shinsou's face.

"Shinsou-kun, you come with us, too!" said Mirio.

Shinsou was scowling.

"No thanks," he said shortly, and turned and went off.

Misa looked after him, slightly worried, but Mirio laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about him," he said cheerfully, "It's just Shinsou being Shinsou."

.

.

Misa did not find her field trip with Mirio very eventful. He brought her to an old mansion where a big _shabu_ , or drug, bust had taken place the previous month, and showed her how the reconnaissance had been done before the raid had been carried out. She had actually done similar stealth work back in Iideyama before, because there were occasionally cases where villains fled and they had to track them down, which involved a lot of stealthy checking of buildings. What she found more useful was his description of his own Quirk techniques, and also his methods of penetrating high security facilities.

"Check on their surveillance camera system," he said. "You might be able to phase in without detection, but if you and Shinsou choose to interrogate the villain in a room with a hidden camera, you're going to be found out even if you return the villain to bed without knowing he was ever interrogated."

.

.

She had a sparring session with Shinsou the following day. She was still – in her own opinion – appallingly poor at combat, but he had been patient so far, focusing only on which areas she should work on to improve. This afternoon, however, his mood seemed decidedly out of sorts.

"Well, so how was dinner and drinks?" he said sarcastically the minute she appeared, "Did Togata do his usual clothes-dropping act for you during the night?"

With a small shock, Misa suddenly realised that Shinsou was jealous. She stared incredulously at him, and then looked away, embarrassed.

"It went all right," she said briefly, not knowing what else to say.

They started the session, but didn't get very far, because neither was concentrating very much. Aizawa, who had dropped by to watch, called them over after a while.

"What's the matter with the two of you?" he said.

"Nothing," said Shinsou, coolly.

"Nothing," said Misa, uncomfortably.

Aizawa looked at them for a few moments, and then turned to Misa. "Arakawa-san."

Misa stared hopelessly at Aizawa. She didn't have the faintest idea what to say. Finally, she went red, and looking down at the floor, muttered, "I had dinner with Mirio."

Aizawa looked at her for a few seconds.

"Arakawa-san, wait here for a short while," he said, "Shinsou, come with me."

Aizawa led Shinsou to the other end of the hall, and then turned and looked at him.

"All right, Shinsou," he said, "What's the meaning of this?"

"It's nothing," said Shinsou coldly, "Just stay out of it."

"You're a fool, Shinsou," said Aizawa, "After her brother, you're the one she looks up to the most. Magnetron told me the CCTV footage shows her all over the place at odd hours, working out, training, from early morning till late at night. Why? Because she doesn't want to let you down."

"She's doing it for the job," said Shinsou.

"She's doing it for you," said Aizawa, "You, the one who picked her out of the so-called gutter and brought her here. She didn't say as much, but I could more or less read that from her response when I told her she was overdoing it."

Shinsou put a hand to the back of his neck, frowning.

"If she's placed me on a pedestal, I'll be dethroned soon enough," he said, and then added, "One would have to admit, Togata's is a far more appealing personality than mine."

"Not in her eyes," said Aizawa, "Pull yourself together. We all have our insecurities, but you're the leader in this partnership and I expect you to behave like it. Let's go back to her. We're going to settle this once and for all."

They went back to where Misa was waiting.

"Arakawa-san," said Aizawa, "I want you to let Shinsou take control. I need you to answer a few questions."

Misa looked reluctant.

"No," she said, "Surely that isn't necessary. I can answer the questions as I am now."

"I promise I'll only ask a few questions, and none that you would mind answering under normal conditions," said Aizawa, "but I need him to know that you're telling the truth."

She looked extremely unhappy, but finally nodded.

Shinsou looked at her. "Talk to me."

Not looking at him, she answered in a low voice, "Yes." Her face went blank.

"Answer all of Aizawa's questions," said Shinsou.

"Arakawa-san," said Aizawa, "If you had to choose between working with Togata or Shinsou, who would you choose?"

"Shinsou," she said.

"If Shinsou was transferred elsewhere and you had to team up with another partner, what would you do?" asked Aizawa.

"I would resign," she said.

Shinsou looked decidedly surprised.

"Why?" asked Aizawa, "What's wrong with working with someone else?"

"Nothing," she said, "It's just that I came here to work with Shinsou."

"So, you would leave if you couldn't work with him," said Aizawa.

"Yes," she said.

"What would you do?" asked Aizawa.

"Go back to my studies."

"All right. I think that will do," said Aizawa, looking at Shinsou.

Shinsou was staring at Misa. He said slowly, "Awaken."

Misa stirred, and the blank look went from her face. She saw the two men looking at her, and said suspiciously, "What have I been saying?"

"Nothing that you wouldn't have said if you hadn't been under his control," said Aizawa. "Shinsou, you know what to do. I suggest you call off sparring for today. When the two of you have settled things here, come to my office. There's something important I need to tell the both of you."

With that, he went off.

Misa and Shinsou were left facing each other.

"All right," Shinsou said wryly, "I'll admit, I've been behaving like an idiot. If you had been a normal person like everyone else, it might have been different. But I got carried away too much by your story while tracking you down, and I became possessive of you. I began to view you as my own personal property. I apologize." He began to bow.

"Stop," said Misa, looking troubled, "Don't bow. I won't have you bowing to me."

She looked up at him.

"And you don't ever need to apologize to me, either, Shinsou-san," she said gently, "Let's just forget this episode. I don't want to think about it any more. It's history. Let's move on."

Shinsou was looking somewhat baffled, but he said, "All right."

"Let's get on with the sparring, then," she said.

"We're supposed to see Aizawa in his office," said Shinsou.

"Oh yes, that's right," she said.

They left the training hall. Shinsou was looking thoughtful, but Misa was frowning. They walked in silence all the way to Aizawa's office, and then Shinsou turned and, leaning against the wall, looked at her and said, "You're still angry with me, aren't you?"

She had a peculiar expression on her face, half-reproachful, half-exasperated.

"It's just that … I don't know how you could even _think_ I would prefer Mirio to you," she said.

"Why don't you fancy him?" asked Shinsou, genuinely curious, "A lot of girls do. He's a really popular hero."

"Well, he's very nice, of course," said Misa, laughing, "I like him very much. But he's like a child, so open. You can know his entire character in five minutes, and his personality is completely without any mystery or disguise. After a while, there's just nothing new – "

She stopped, because Aizawa had opened the door of his office.

"From all the talk going on out here, I gather the two of you have made up," he said, "Come in. There's something I need to talk to you about."


	7. The Hikari Case

**7 THE HIKARI CASE**

When they entered Aizawa's office, Misa was surprised to see Magnetron floating around with a jet pack strapped to his back, wielding what looked like a metal detector.

"Arakawa-sama," he said joyfully, spotting her. He liked her, because she sometimes took the time to listen to his gadget talk.

"Aizawa's becoming paranoid," Shinsou said to Misa, "He keeps getting Magnetron to check if his office is bugged, or has had some hidden camera installed."

"A logical necessity," said Aizawa mildly, "considering we don't know what our spy may be doing. I get Magnetron to check before I have any confidential discussion with anyone."

Magnetron landed on the ground, and was trundling over to where Misa was. He opened a compartment in his side, and started taking out what Misa had come to recognise as his gadget bag.

"Not now, Magnetron-kun," said Aizawa, "We need to start our meeting immediately."

Magnetron looked disappointed.

Misa bent down to talk to him. "I'll see if I have time to talk to you later. How's that?"

Magnetron brightened. He had finished checking the room, and he bowed low to all of them, and left.

"You spoil that robot," said Shinsou, disapprovingly.

"He's such a cute little guy," said Misa fondly, "and he has invented so many useful tools for strengthening my Quirk."

"Maybe he's the spy," said Shinsou.

"Nonsense," said Aizawa, "You've checked him, haven't you?"

Shinsou, seeing Misa's questioning look, explained, "I've been discreetly brainwashing people during casual conversations, trying to unearth our spy."

"A most haphazard and unsystematic method," complained Aizawa, "there are several hundred people working in the Directorate, two thirds of whom you hardly come into contact with."

Shinsou shrugged. "It's better than nothing."

They seated themselves at the table, and looked at Aizawa expectantly.

"All right, let's get started," said Aizawa, "Firstly, our Director-General is being replaced."

"Fujiwara?" said Shinsou, frowning, "Who's replacing him?"

"Someone called Kenichi Nakamura," said Aizawa.

"Who's he?" asked Shinsou.

"He's the Deputy Head of the Sapporo Intelligence Bureau," said Aizawa, "A very odd choice, considering he is not even that high-ranking in the Directorate. I find his appointment extremely suspicious."

"This must be causing a furore," remarked Shinsou, "What's the justification for removing Fujiwara?"

"We haven't been told the official reason," said Aizawa, "and as you might imagine, rumours abound. However it looks as if the appointment is going to go through, since it has been approved by the Ministry of Justice."

He paused.

"But the greatest impact that this is going to have on us is that Fujiwara was the only one who knew that Group Sigma is investigating the Hikari case, and he was able to give approval for me to get various things done.

"For example, because of him I had no trouble hiring Arakawa even though she didn't meet the usual educational qualifications for new recruits. I also managed to get the room upstairs for her to stay in without any trouble. I'll have difficulty doing anything like that now. But that won't involve the two of you. I meant to start preparations for your next assignment at a later date, but Nakamura is arriving tomorrow, and I do not know how that is going to affect us. So, I've decided to bring our first briefing forward to today."

He looked at Misa.

"You joined us in August," he said, "I'm planning for the two of you to go out in the field at the end of February. How's her progress so far, Shinsou?"

Misa didn't feel ready. She looked at Shinsou in alarm.

Shinsou saw her expression.

"Not bad," he said, looking amused, "February should be OK."

"We normally like to use a code word instead of the word 'assignment'," Aizawa continued, looking at Misa, "It's time to choose one. Any suggestions? We normally choose the name of a place."

"Tokyo Disneyland," said Shinsou, irreverently.

Misa smiled. "Mt Fuji?"

They settled on Mt Fuji.

"Right," said Aizawa, "Arakawa-san, we've been working on a particular case for a number of years now, and we sought you out because we hoped you could help us with it. Therefore, Shinsou and I are going to fill you in on the background."

"It all started eight years ago," began Shinsou, "with the hacking of the Quirk Registration Office database and the Registration of Births database."

"At the time, we didn't know the significance of this," said Aizawa, "Then, six years ago, the number of murder incidents in the country began to rise. There are usually incidents scattered around the country, and usually we don't find much connection between them. Usual causes are fights between gangs, revenge killings, or robbery."

"However it became noticeable that many of the murder victims were ordinary people," said Shinsou, "without any connections to gangs or criminal activity. They didn't seem to be robbery or revenge victims either. They appeared to have been killed just for the sake of killing."

"And as the number of victims increased," said Aizawa, "the police began to notice something similar between them. Many of them were Quirkless."

"Or had failed to register their Quirks," added Shinsou.

"Oh …" said Misa, light dawning.

"Yes," said Aizawa, "it looked as though whoever had downloaded the databases had done so to identify those who had been born without Quirks, and to track them down and kill them."

"After a while it wasn't just killing," said Shinsou, "But abduction as well. People without Quirks were suddenly just disappearing for no reason."

"Most of the murders were simple gunshots or stab wounds," said Aizawa, "But there were many gruesome ones too. The victims had had their throats crushed, or else their flesh had melted away, and only the bones were left. Some died of poisoning, others had terrible sores and boils on their bodies. Some had their throats torn out, as if by some savage animal."

"These are likely due to the Quirks of various villains, and so it appears we're dealing with some pretty unpleasant characters here," said Shinsou.

"It took the police a while, but they managed to apprehend three of the gunmen behind the murders," continued Aizawa, "They asked Shinsou to help interrogate them to find out who was behind it, but he wasn't able to come up with anything."

"It was as if someone had wiped out their memories," said Shinsou, "They didn't know anything except who they were supposed to kill."

"We think it might be due to someone's Quirk," said Aizawa, "Someone who has mental powers, perhaps similar to Shinsou's, but who can erase or plant memories or desires into people's minds."

"The difference between my Quirk and his is that while my brainwashing is temporary, his seems to be permanent," said Shinsou, "the victim loses his memories and identity. He only remembers the instructions that he's been given to carry out."

"One important thing the police noticed about the hitmen," said Aizawa, "All of them had a tattoo of a flame on their right arms, near the elbow. It looked as though they belonged to some sort of cult that wants to eliminate the Quirkless. And that's when the police asked Fujiwara if someone from our side could help look into the case."

He looked at Misa, who nodded to show that she was listening.

"When background checks were done on these hitmen," Shinsou continued, "it also came to light that all of them belonged to a charitable organisation called Hikari."

Misa looked surprised.

"I've heard of it," she said, "It has branches all over the country. It's a fairly new organisation, but grew rapidly once it started."

"Right," said Shinsou, "and interestingly, it was first registered around eight years ago as well, just around the time the databases were hacked."

"We planted some undercover agents in a few branches of this organisation," said Aizawa. "After some time, it became obvious that Hikari was being used as a front to recruit people into the cult. Certain employees there spend a lot of time talking to the staff, getting to know them, even personal details. After a while, those with 'potential' get transferred to other branches and are not seen again."

"I managed to 'talk' to the founder of Hikari, a man called Shimoda," said Shinsou, "But he seems innocent enough. He appears to be genuinely running the organisation for charitable purposes. Either his mind has been tampered with as well, or he doesn't know what's happening inside Hikari."

"Our undercover agents didn't have much luck getting selected as one of these 'chosen few'," Aizawa continued, "save for one called Shibata. He told us he was getting transferred, but to where, he didn't know. After that we lost contact with him – we haven't heard from him for the last couple of months. However, we managed to track him using the GPS on his cell phone to a house near Fukuchiyama in Kyoto Prefecture. The last GPS signal we received was on June the fourth, and after that we completely lost contact with him."

"We used the GPS coordinates to locate the Fukuchiyama house, and sent scouts there to monitor it," said Shinsou, "and after a while I went there myself to have a look. It was usually the same people entering or leaving the house, and after a while the scouts established their daily routines of travelling to the town nearby to buy supplies. I would hang around the town, trying to bump into them and start a casual conversation, maybe just asking them for directions or the time. But they turned out to be just like the hitmen. They were able to tell me details of their daily routines … cooking, cleaning, buying groceries … but otherwise, there was nothing further. They didn't know who was running their organisation."

"Someone's playing a clever game here," agreed Aizawa, "He's surrounded himself with pawns who do the work for him, but who don't yield any information about him."

"I managed to sneak into the house to have a look," said Shinsou, "It's a secluded house with big grounds, and it can't be seen from the road. At the moment there's no security system installed around it. It's fairly extensive with two storeys. The people staying in the house are mostly pawns who don't know anything. We bugged the house, but so far most of the conversations recorded have been inconsequential."

"We thought about getting someone who's a shape-shifter to disguise himself as one of the pawns and enter the house," said Aizawa, "But there's no one in the Directorate at the moment who has the right Quirk. We also tried finding out if we could get someone in by applying to work there, say as a chef or servant, but they don't hire. All their staff probably get modified mentally first before being sent there."

"So we were getting nowhere," said Shinsou, "They have visitors every now and then, and I was lucky once and managed to get into the house when there were some. I wanted to interrogate them, but there were difficulties. Interrogation takes time. If I get into the house and capture someone during the day, the person will be missed after a while. If at night, many of them share common sleeping quarters and there's some difficulty getting a person out to a location where I can interrogate him. I tried a couple of times, and nearly got caught."

"That's why we searched for you," said Aizawa, looking at Misa, "You can enter the house with Shinsou during the night and with your phasing ability it'll be easier to silently capture our targets and bring them to another locale for interrogation."

Misa was beginning to feel the burden of responsibility.

"What exactly do I have to do?" she asked.

"The plan is for you and I to take over the scouts' jobs for a couple of weeks," said Shinsou, "or months, depending how long it takes for someone worth interrogating to show up at the house."

"But we'll brief you on that in more detail at a later date," said Aizawa, "It's still many months more, and we're just giving you the background first. Let's see what this fellow Nakamura is like. In the meantime, continue with your training."

.

.

Kenichi Nakamura arrived at the Directorate the next day. He was a large man, with the head of a bloodhound. A meeting was held with the Directorate staff where he was formally introduced and gave a speech. It was only on the following day that Aizawa and his group began to get a taste of what was to come.

Group Sigma was having a meeting in Aizawa's office discussing the Mt Fuji assignment, and Aizawa was showing them the photo of a villain.

"This is one of the few visitors at the Hikari house that the scouts managed to photograph," he said, "His name seems to be Graveyard. His touch can dissolve flesh and muscle. That's how he kills … after that only the victim's bones are left. Ishida said he became displeased with one of the servants in the house and disposed of him that way."

Misa looked at the bloated, corpselike face, and felt sick.

"That would match the way quite a number of the murder victims died," Shinsou observed grimly.

"We haven't managed to find out much background about him," said Aizawa, "I don't think his Quirk has ever been registered."

He then brought out a map of Kyoto Prefecture to show Misa.

"Fukuchiyama is here, and the house is located here," he said, "The small town nearby is called Kamone."

There was a knock on the door, and Aizawa hastily hid the map inside his desk.

"Come in," he said. The door opened to reveal Nakamura.

"Woof! Good afternoon," he said, bowing, "I trust I'm not interrupting anything important."

They had all risen to acknowledge him.

"Not at all," said Aizawa, "We were having a routine discussion."

"It's my style to get to know all the staff personally," announced Nakamura, "This group is – ? And may I know your names?"

"Shouta Aizawa, Hitoshi Shinsou, Covert Ops," said Aizawa, "and Misa Arakawa, a new recruit. We're monitoring her progress as is standard procedure under the informal Group known as Sigma."

"Woof! Delighted to meet you," said Nakamura. "Shinsou? I've heard your name before. You do interrogation, I believe?"

"Sometimes," said Shinsou, "I've been over to the police occasionally, when they ask me to help out."

"Woof! Yes, I recall something like that," said Nakamura. "And Aizawa. You used to teach at Yuuei, if I'm not mistaken?"

"A while back, yes," said Aizawa.

"This must be quite a change from the classroom," said Nakamura. He looked at Misa. "And Arakawa. How are you finding the job so far?"

"Busy, sir," said Misa, "There are many new things to learn."

"You appear to be a unique employee," said Nakamura, "It's most unusual for the Directorate to hire a person with your academic qualifications."

"We hired her based on her abilities," said Shinsou, "Permeation Quirks are useful for intelligence work."

"Her academic qualifications are a result of family difficulties," said Aizawa, "Given her performance so far, she has the potential to achieve as much or more than many of the existing staff here."

"Woof! Time will tell," said Nakamura. "Well, it has been most instructive meeting all of you. Just taking some time off to get to know all the staff. It's good to be in contact with what's happening on the ground. I shall be dropping by again in future. Good day to you!"

And with that, he left.

After the door had closed, Aizawa said drily, "He's checked up on us. And made no secret of it."

"Yes," said Shinsou, "A not so subtle warning."

"Thank you for speaking up for me," said Misa.

"We didn't say anything that wasn't true," said Aizawa.

" 'I shall be dropping by again in future'," said Shinsou, "that sounds ominous."

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Aizawa, grimly.

.


	8. The Social Committee

**8 THE SOCIAL COMMITTEE**

Nakamura kept his word, and proceeded to drop by for almost every subsequent meeting that Group Sigma held. Aizawa normally held meetings twice a week on average, but not on fixed days, and it was extraordinary how Nakamura seemed to know exactly when. He would arrive punctually exactly five minutes after they had started, and he would stay and ramble on about various irrelevant issues for about an hour, after which they usually had other commitments and would have to leave.

The third week that this happened, Shinsou, for whom patience was not always a virtue, brainwashed Nakamura and sent him back to his office after about half an hour of rambling.

"I should have done that long ago," he said.

"He's specifically targeting Covert Ops," said Misa, "I've overheard the others complaining as well in the cafeteria, especially Tomonaga and Noriyuki."

"What the hell is he up to," said Shinsou.

"Well, you've solved the problem for us for the time being," said Aizawa, looking at Shinsou, "Otherwise I was going to move our meetings to evenings, when he's already gone home."

Shinsou brainwashed Nakamura into going back to his office for the next three weeks. At the beginning of the fourth week, however, Professor Hadron came to see Aizawa.

"Sorry to trouble you, Aizawa-san," he said, in his nervous way, "But I thought you had better know, Nakamura has asked us to install a camera outside your office."

"He probably realised something funny was going on when weeks went by and he kept waking up back in his office," said Shinsou, when Aizawa had informed them.

"Well, what's to do now," said Aizawa, "If you brainwash him, he'll know from the footage what time he entered and left the room."

"Let's damage the camera," said Shinsou.

"They'll just replace it," objected Misa.

"And you'll get into trouble for damaging Directorate property," said Aizawa.

"You can phase through the ceiling," Shinsou said to Misa, "Just stick your hand through and grab the camera with your hands and squeeze it hard. No one will know who did it."

Misa was laughing.

"Maybe I could get Magnetron to doctor the footage," she suggested.

"Hadron might find out," said Shinsou, "and he can't keep a secret to save his life."

"We could move our meeting place elsewhere," said Misa, "Maybe even to my room."

"That would be of no use," said Aizawa, "I've discovered how he knows when we're meeting. It's his Quirk. He's a bloodhound, and his sense of smell is so good that he knows where everyone in the building is. He just needs to sense all three of us together in my office and he'll come over. If we hold the meeting elsewhere, he'll still come to wherever it is."

.

.

In early December, Nakamura called for a general meeting in the conference room.

When she arrived, Misa saw Itsuka Kendou, whom she recognised as from Data Analysis.

"What's the meeting about?" she asked Kendou.

"I don't know," said Kendou, "but not everyone is coming. At least not those I spoke to from Public or Defence, or the Legal Department. Only Training, Covert Ops, Support, and my section …"

"And Science and Technology," said Misa, "I see Tokoyami."

Nakamura arrived, and he wanted everyone to sit according to their Divisions, so Misa said goodbye to Kendou and went to sit with Shinsou and Aizawa.

"Woof! Welcome, everyone," said Nakamura, "Thank you for coming. We have a most pleasant thing to discuss. Yes, next year's Social Committee!"

There were surprised and also angry murmurs, especially from Covert Ops.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have come," said Tomonaga, who was sitting near Group Sigma. He was with his sidekick Noriyuki, and they made up Group Delta. They were not wearing their hero costumes, but were in ordinary clothes. In fact, Misa noticed that most of the heroes in Covert Ops were underground heroes and did not wear hero costumes, because they usually went out in the field in disguise. Shinsou himself did not. Aizawa normally wore his scarf and usual black outfit.

Shinsou had told her in private that Group Delta were keeping an eye on the North Koreans, and Misa thought them an interesting pair. They looked like brothers, but were not related. Both were tall and well-built. Tomonaga had orange skin and Noriyuki green. They both habitually wore deadpan expressions, and they were especially stony-faced right now.

Shinsou was leaning back in his chair, listening, but there was an unpleasant gleam in his eye.

"This is the first time I've seen a Director-General conducting a Social Committee Meeting," he remarked.

"Now," said Nakamura, "from what I see, Covert Ops seldom sits on the Committee. This is most unfair to the other Divisions. I propose that Covert Ops organise the social events for next year."

Misa could feel the current of anger erupt around her. Several of the Covert Ops staff, including Tomonaga, stood up to protest.

"Covert Ops are unable to sit on Social!" he said angrily. "We're out in the field for months, and even when we are here we are involved in training and other work!"

There were murmurs of assent.

"Woof! Well, every Division will have their own reasons as to why they are unable to sit on the Committee," said Nakamura, "To make it easier, I shall divide it into quarters. The first quarter will be from January to March next year. I shall ask for volunteers first, and if there are none, then allocation will be made."

The faces around her all looked mutinous, and Misa was wondering what was going to happen, when to her shock Aizawa, whom she had thought was fast asleep, suddenly stood up and said,

"Group Sigma volunteers."

Shinsou's eyes flashed.

"What?" he said.

"Splendid," said Nakamura.

"Aizawa, are you out of your mind?" demanded Shinsou.

"We'll do it for the first quarter," said Aizawa.

"I strenuously object!" said Shinsou angrily, also standing up, "I do not have the time to go organizing parties for people!"

"Sit down," said Aizawa, seating himself as well, "Arakawa will do most of the work."

"She doesn't have the time, either!" snapped Shinsou, taking his seat.

Misa had a resigned expression on her face.

"I'll need to know the budget," she said, raising her hand, as if she was in a classroom.

"Woof! No problem," said Nakamura, "Just contact Finance."

.

.

"Stop shouting at me," said Aizawa, "It's getting difficult to explain to him why we're having so many meetings just to assess the progress of one new recruit. The social thing solves our problems. Next time he drops in on us, we'll just say we're having a brief social meeting and we've just finished, and we'll pretend to get up and leave. That should get rid of him. We can continue our meeting after he's gone. If he notices we're still in my office he'll think we just stayed to chat."

"Misa doesn't have time to be organising things," said Shinsou, still looking annoyed. "She hardly has time to complete her own training as it is."

"It may not be that bad," said Misa, trying to make peace between the two of them, "I only need to organise two events. I'll probably just get hampers and have them distributed for New Year. Then that leaves just one event."

"You've never organised this sort of thing before," said Shinsou disparagingly, "I can tell you even one event takes up a lot of time!"

"Make it simple," said Aizawa, "Don't do anything fancy."

.

.

The weeks passed. Nakamura continued his disruptions of their meetings, and Aizawa managed to get rid of him by declaring them as social committee briefings. Finally, Shinsou came up with another way to avoid Nakamura.

"I dropped by the Director-General's office early this morning and brainwashed his secretary into showing me his schedule," he said, passing a sheet of paper to Aizawa, "Just schedule our meetings to coincide with his appointments."

Unfortunately, this didn't work out quite the way they had planned. They were halfway through the meeting when Nakamura arrived.

"Bad news," Aizawa was saying, "Another of our undercover agents has been murdered."

"Who?" asked Shinsou.

"Nakahara," said Aizawa, "They found the body in an alley in Aichi Prefecture."

Shinsou looked angry. "That was a good man."

"And the scouts have seen someone new at the Kamone house too," added Aizawa. He placed a photograph on the table of a blue-skinned man.

"Who is it?" asked Misa.

"A villain," said Aizawa, "named Carousel. We did a background check, he's been involved in violent crime before and he's also spent some time out of the country, mainly in China and Korea. Arakawa-san, you might want to be careful if you encounter him. His Quirk is one of the few you're vulnerable to – he can disorientate those around him, throw them off balance and make them dizzy."

He kept the photo away, and then looked at Misa.

"I've mentioned this to Shinsou, before," he said, "and I might as well mention it to you, too. If, during the assignment, Shinsou manages to brainwash a villain for interrogation, and you see him standing in front of you, docile and obedient, I can imagine that it would probably be very tempting to capture him and hand him over to the police immediately. Especially if you know he has committed murder before, and is likely to do so again. I would ask you to restrain yourself. We want to quietly find out everything about the cult and who the mastermind behind it is, before making a strike and capturing everyone at once. If you were to give us away by capturing one of the villains now, they will be on their guard, and it may be even harder for us to find out anything further about them."

"I understand," said Misa.

"And that goes for anyone else you might interrogate, too, such as the cult members," said Aizawa, "If you save them, you save one, but there'll be hundreds of others still suffering. If you can restrain yourself for the time being, we hope we'll be able to save not just a few but everyone, and rid Japan of this cult."

The door suddenly opened, and Shinsou cursed under his breath. Misa immediately phased everything on the desk to beneath the desk surface. Nakamura had recently stopped knocking on doors, and had developed the habit of just bursting in.

"Woof! Just checking on things," said Nakamura, "What's this, another meeting about Arakawa's progress? Group Sigma can't possibly need to have such frequent meetings for a single recruit."

"We're having a social events meeting," said Aizawa.

"Woof! You're having them extremely frequently as well, I must say," said Nakamura. "Well, let's hear it, then. What's the latest progress you've made?"

Aizawa and Shinsou looked at Misa.

Misa cleared her throat.

"Well, the last time I mentioned we could have cherry-blossom viewing at Akabara Park in April," she said, "Although the first quarter ends in March, we agreed it would be all right to delay the event a week or two to time it with the flowering season.

"We can have a boat race. I've checked out the park, the river Kanda loops through it and the picnic tables are on high ground, so it's popular for boat races because you can view most of the race from the picnic area."

"A good idea," said Aizawa.

"So I thought we could have races in the late afternoon, followed by an early dinner," continued Misa, "Given the width of the river we can have about three boats with four people each per race. We'll draw lots for that. I plan to have four consecutive races, the first starting from 1500 hours."

"Splendid!" said Nakamura.

Shinsou was looking bored.

"Food," he said.

"Yes," said Misa, looking at her notes. "I thought we could have a pot luck for a change, but I haven't got many volunteers. Kendou from Data Analysis has offered to bring sushi, while Tokoyami from Science and Technology says he can bring basashi."

Shinsou stirred. "Tokoyami can cook?"

"I don't know if he's doing the cooking," said Misa, "he just told me he could bring it."

"I'm not eating anything cooked by Tokoyami," said Shinsou.

"Basashi is raw horse meat," said Aizawa, "it doesn't need cooking."

"We should have raw dog – " began Shinsou, breaking off because Misa had kicked him in the shin.

Fortunately, Nakamura didn't seem to have heard this last comment.

"Woof! Well, it's excellent work," he said, "Now you'll just need to find more volunteers for the food."

"Why don't we just assume that everyone will die after eating the basashi, and forget about the rest of the food," said Shinsou.

"I'll probably forget about having a pot luck," said Misa, ignoring Shinsou, "There are several options. There's the usual bento, or there are a couple of restaurants we can buy food from. I've also found a caterer who will do a buffet, but we'll need to be sure to have good weather. That's as far as I've progressed."

Aizawa promptly closed the meeting after that, and Nakamura took his leave. They looked at each other as the door closed on him.

"I thought he had a meeting," said Misa, wondering.

"Give me a minute." Aizawa dialled a number and went outside to make a call. He came back in a few minutes.

"I just spoke to Watanabe," he said, "Nakamura suddenly just cancelled his meeting midway and came over to ours."

"He's really got it in for us!" Shinsou exploded.

"Well, we're not the only ones," said Aizawa, "He's been disrupting the other groups as well. He seems to be giving Group Sigma priority, though."

Misa was phasing the papers back out of the desk.

"We can resume now," said Aizawa, "I'll think about whether we should hold our meetings at night instead."

Shinsou was still scowling.

"There must be some way to get rid of him," he said, his eyes looking dangerous.

Misa looked at him in alarm. Shinsou looked as if he was going to murder someone. The Director-General of the Intelligence Directorate was a powerful man, and crossing him could have serious consequences. But she knew that if Shinsou had set his mind on doing something, there was nothing she could do about it.


	9. The Birthday Dinner

**9 THE BIRTHDAY DINNER**

"Couldn't we have chosen a less formal restaurant?" asked Misa.

She and Shinsou were at Miyajima, an upmarket restaurant about fifteen minutes' walk from the Directorate. Magnetron had discovered bugs in both Aizawa's office and also Shinsou's desk several days ago. Aizawa had promptly asked Magnetron to check Misa's room, and to everyone's consternation, there was one there as well.

Aizawa had suggested she and Shinsou meet outside the Directorate for the time being whenever they needed to discuss the upcoming assignment. In the meantime, he was making Magnetron check their rooms several times a day.

"Well, this restaurant's not too far from the Directorate," explained Shinsou, "and I know the waiter. I asked him to lead the other diners to tables far away from us so that we can have more privacy. Sorry, I forgot to tell you about the dress code."

Misa had arrived at the restaurant in jeans, because she had just come from training at the Simulation Centre. The waiter had promptly refused to admit her. Rather than waste time going back to the Directorate to change, she had gone to the nearest shop and bought a dress and high heels. She sat down opposite Shinsou, and looked mournfully at him.

"I've just spent a sizeable chunk of my salary on this outfit," she said, ruefully.

"Next time, we'll go to my apartment, OK?" said Shinsou.

She looked slightly exasperated.

"You could have thought of that from the beginning," she said, reproachfully.

"Well, my apartment's a lot further away," Shinsou pointed out, "And anyway, you can charge the dress to the Directorate. After all, you got it for work-related reasons."

Her face brightened. "I can?"

"Certainly," he said, "But that will mean the outfit belongs to the Directorate and you'll have to hand it over to Makeover Girl. I've done it a couple of times. There are always occasions when you're following someone or doing something, and you suddenly need to dash into a shop and get a change of clothes."

He paused, as the waiter brought their drinks over and set them on the table. It was three in the afternoon. They had chosen to meet at that time because the restaurant would be almost empty. Because the lighting was dim, Shinsou had taken a table right next to the window. They spoke quietly, so that no one would overhear them.

"Speaking of clothes," he was saying, "You'll need to get a couple of disguises when we go to Mt Fuji. I've made an appointment for you with the Disguises Section on Thursday. Go see Makeover Girl, she'll take a look at you and suggest what would be good, and she'll help you try them on."

Misa was intrigued.

"Makeover Girl will also give you a couple of sessions on how to carry yourself once you put on the disguise," continued Shinsou, "She'll walk you around Tokyo a bit, until you get it right. But not to worry too much, you don't need anything too complicated. I'll be the one doing most of the talking and interacting with people."

Misa was really curious as to what Shinsou's own disguises might be, but he was already bringing out a large envelope and moving on to the next topic.

"Just a few things to show you today," he said, "Here are photos of the Kamone house … when the scouts sneaked in and installed the monitoring equipment, they took these as well."

They spent a while looking at the photos.

"We'll be going down ourselves and monitoring the house starting from end February," said Shinsou, "If you recall, the house is mostly run by pawns. However, if any visitors arrive, we'll try to interrogate them. The scouts say they get visitors about once a month, so it'll depend on our luck. Just be warned, we could be there for months and nothing might happen."

"Will we be staying in the town, or camping out somewhere?" asked Misa.

"Camping out,"answered Shinsou, "It's a small town, so it's not a good idea to stay there. Most of the townspeople know each other, so strangers are quite noticeable. We'll have it easy as compared to most assignments, anyway, because the scouts have already been camping there for months. We won't need to look for a place to stay, but will be taking over their camp for a while."

"How will we be getting there?" Misa asked.

"We'll drive," he replied. "We'll hide the car somewhere. Fukuchiyama is the nearest city and it actually has a train station, but the house is on a mountain, quite far removed from it. Also, if for whatever reason we're discovered, we might have to get away quick and we'll need a car for that."

He kept the photos away, and now brought a map out.

"We're unlikely to end up using this, but it's good for you to know about it," he remarked, "This is a map of Yosano, a town next to Fukuchiyama. The Directorate has just bought a small apartment there. It owns similar property around Japan, for various purposes. Sometimes it's to hide witnesses or anyone else we want to hide, more often we use them as a base when we're out in the field, or maybe even emergencies."

They looked at the location of the apartment on the map, and he showed her a photo of its exterior, as well.

"I think we had better get more hours on the phasing practice, by the way," said Shinsou, "I'm scheduling it for Tuesday."

"OK," said Misa.

They had been spending many hours practising her phasing the both of them in different situations, seeing what they could or could not do, especially when underground. Phasing underground was complicated, and they planned to minimise doing it as much as possible. But it was useful because they could move about unobserved, for example when approaching the Hikari cult's house. Magnetron had made a set of periscopes for them, in different colours for camouflage with different types of ground cover; and they could discreetly poke these out to the surface and look out to make sure they were going in the correct direction.

Shinsou found that while in phase mode, he could hold the periscope underground and move and use it without Misa deactivating her Quirk in it, in the same way he might move his body with his clothes staying on him as well. But if he were to push a gun out at ground level and try shooting, she would have to deactivate her Quirk more in the gun for the bullet to be triggered with a reasonable amount of force.

While underground, breathing was still all right if it was in normal soil so long as there was enough air between the soil particles. If it was in concrete, it became difficult to breathe and they could not stay long. While underground they also could not see each other, unless they came really close. They could still talk if they were phasing above ground, but it was difficult to speak underground, because the soil truncated sound, unless they shouted or spoke in the other's ear.

Misa worried that Shinsou would get into some difficulty while they were underground and be unable to tell her, so she planned to deactivate her Quirk slightly in his hands all the time so that he could squeeze her arm if he wanted to surface. She also had a sleeve made to fasten to his arm which could be attached with velcro. She would slip her hand inside so she would not accidentally let go of him while phasing.

"I think we'll soon have to practise phasing in a car under different scenarios too," said Shinsou, "When I'm driving, we'll have to check if you have to deactivate your Quirk slightly in my hands and feet and the car controls. How's your Quirk-control training with Radon coming along?"

Misa had realised some time ago that Shinsou had somehow assumed she didn't know how to drive. His instructions to Radon had been that she was merely to control the phasing of the car while someone else drove it. She guessed that he had learned how time consuming her hero work in Iideyama had been, and that he had imagined she wouldn't have had time to learn.

She had decided not to enlighten him, just yet.

"Slow but steady," she said, "I think I'm getting there."

"Good," said Shinsou, "Keep at it."

.

.

The Director-General dropped by their Group Sigma meeting again the following week. Aizawa had been holding meetings late at night in order to avoid him, but had been unable to do so that week because he had other commitments in the evenings.

They had pretended it was a social events meeting, as usual. However, even though Aizawa had concluded the meeting, Nakamura refused to leave. He continued standing there, talking about irrelevant topics, for a good forty-five minutes.

Misa noticed Shinsou becoming more and more restless. Finally, he could tolerate it no longer.

"It's getting late," he suddenly said, rather tartly, to Nakamura.

"What's that?" said Nakamura, startled, and then became blank-faced.

"Return to your office," ordered Shinsou, scowling, "and stay there!"

Aizawa waited until Nakamura had obediently left the room, and then exclaimed, "What are you doing? I thought we agreed you weren't going to do that any more!"

"It's only for today," said Shinsou, frowning and getting to his feet, "I'm supposed to meet Ayumi at Higashi at seven, and it's ten to now."

"You'll only be a bit late," said Aizawa, "She'll forgive you."

"No, she won't," said Shinsou bitterly, "I'll be half an hour late, and it's her birthday."

He took out the notes that he had hidden inside the desk when Nakamura had come in, and started arranging them, but Misa said, "Just go. You can get them from me tomorrow."

He threw her a grateful look. "I'd appreciate that." And he disappeared out the door.

Misa began to tidy the papers, but within a minute Shinsou had come back.

"The lifts are crammed full with people," he said, "Misa, can you phase me down?"

"Leave all the notes with me," said Aizawa, in a resigned voice.

"We'll use the corridor," said Misa, indicating he should go back out, "so we won't startle people in their offices."

As she began phasing the both of them down, he said ruefully, "Actually, her birthday was last week, and I forgot it."

Misa was startled. "What?"

"I remembered it the week before, but what with all the preparation for Mt Fuji and that dog Nakamura dropping in all the time, it slipped my mind."

They were reaching the ground floor, and Shinsou expected Misa to stop, but she continued phasing downward toward the basement.

"What are you doing?" said Shinsou.

"We're going to the basement carpark to get one of the Directorate's cars," said Misa, "I'm going to drive you there. If you walk, it'll take half an hour. If I drive you, it'll take five minutes."

"Drive?" said Shinsou, "How can that be faster? Traffic is practically stationary in this part of Tokyo at this hour!"

"I'll phase us through," said Misa, as if it were obvious.

They started making their way toward the basement office.

"You'd better call her," Misa remarked, "Tell her you're on the way, and to order the food first."

"Oh, right," said Shinsou, feeling around in his pocket for his phone.

Misa was amused. Except for their first meeting at the café in Toyama, her experiences with Shinsou had been mostly work-related, and this was a new side of him.

When he had ended the call, she said, "I hope you did get her a present, at least."

She could tell from his expression that he had not.

Trying not to laugh, Misa took a small package out of her pocket, and thrust it at him.

"Here," she said, "It's Iridium's birthday tomorrow. I got her something a little nicer because she's been a big help to me. I was going to give it to her this evening, but I'll get her something else."

Shinsou took the package gratefully. "I'll reimburse you later. What's inside?"

"A pendant," said Misa, "Simple in design, but it'll be better than nothing."

They had reached the basement office.

"You know we're not supposed to be using the cars for this sort of thing, don't you?" said Shinsou.

"I'll be back so fast no one will miss it," Misa assured him, "Now, I need you to get into the office there and brainwash someone into giving us a set of car keys."

He was back within two minutes with the keys, and as they got into the car, he said, "You do know how to drive, don't you?"

"I don't have a driving licence," said Misa, "but I know how to drive."

Shinsou looked at her sharply. She looked innocently back at him.

"The same way I didn't have a hero's licence but was working as a hero," she added.

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Shinsou, as she started the engine.

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly, "I've been practising this for weeks with Radon at the Simulation Centre. He's been making me drive through all sorts of things. I've got my route to the restaurant all worked out. We'll take those buildings that shouldn't have too many people inside."

She stepped on the accelerator, and the car went up the ramp. Instead of turning into the road, she drove straight across, phasing the car through the evening traffic. Several cars screeched to a halt, and one car bumped into a truck in front of it.

Shinsou sighed.

Misa looked abashed. "I'd forgotten that might happen. It doesn't happen at the Simulation Centre."

They were driving into the building opposite and then back out onto the road again, and then through several more buildings. Shinsou heard several more screeches of brakes and caught glimpses of startled and terrified faces as people scrambled out of the way.

Misa finally brought the car to a halt outside the restaurant. She turned to Shinsou with a slightly guilty expression on her face.

"Well, you're only ten minutes late, now," she said, placatingly. He had been watching her, arms folded, with a sardonic expression on his face. Seeing this, she smiled impishly at him.

"You see?" she said, "I told you I know how to drive."

.

.

Ayumi's face was rather sullen when Shinsou slid into his seat across the table from her. She was looking very pretty in a pale blue flowered dress, which matched her blue hair and eyes well. Blue suits her, thought Shinsou.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said, and then, deciding that immediate appeasement was necessary, gave her Misa's package. "Happy birthday."

Her expression became slightly less sullen. "I had half expected that you wouldn't have gotten me anything at all!" She began unwrapping it.

Shinsou had the sudden horrifying thought that Misa might have played a trick on him and placed something like spiders inside instead, but fortunately the gift really turned out to be a pendant.

"Oh, it's pretty," Ayumi exclaimed, flushing with pleasure, "Thank you. I'll wear it right away."

She took the necklace she was wearing off, and replaced it with the pendant.

Shinsou gave a small sigh of relief. He decided that while he was ahead, some flattery might be in order as well.

"You're looking very nice," he said, and meant it.

She went pink.

"How long it has been since you've even noticed anything about me!" she said, "We hardly meet up nowadays, and you go away for weeks at a time without telling me where."

Shinsou thought about the upcoming assignment.

"Sorry," he said, "but – well, you know what the job is like."

"Don't I know it!" said Ayumi, "Why don't you join a normal hero agency, Hitoshi-kun? You could do just as well there. After all, you've always just wanted to be a hero. It doesn't matter where. Then we might be able to have more time together."

Shinsou fiddled with his napkin.

"We've been through all this before, Ayumi," he said, "My Quirk is a lot more useful in intelligence work. There are hundreds of heroes in hero agencies, but there are things only I can do in intelligence that no one else can do. They need me."

"Well, I need you too," said Ayumi, plaintively. "Your job takes up all your time, and you never seem to be able to take leave. We hardly see each other. We've been going on for ages like this. We might as well not be together."

Shinsou frowned.

"Well, let's not argue about it today," he said, "It's your birthday. Why don't you tell me what you've been doing?"

"All right." She launched into an account of her week. After about five minutes, however, she noticed his expression, and stopped.

"You're not listening," she said accusingly.

"I am," said Shinsou, who had been half listening, half trying to think of a way to get rid of Nakamura, "You said Sakura is getting married next month."

"Yes," said Ayumi, "and of course we're going, aren't we? She's one of my oldest friends."

Shinsou put his hand to the back of his neck.

"I'm afraid I might not be able to," he said, "there's another working trip coming up."

He knew this would upset her, and it did.

"I might have known," she said, her face going red, "I should have known. Why did I even bother to think that you could go? – "

"Well, anyway, it's you she cares to see, not me – " began Shinsou.

"That's not the point!" said Ayumi, "I was looking forward to the both of us going together! I'm always going for these things alone, and people keep asking me where you are!"

She wiped a tear away. "Can't you get someone else to replace you for this trip? You might do this for me, just this once."

Shinsou tried to control his temper. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"You know," said Ayumi, "I met Miki the other day. I hadn't seen her for years. She's married an American. And you know what? He quit his job in America so that he could move to Japan to be with her."

Shinsou's eyes were beginning to look dangerous.

"And the point of your story is?" he said.

"You know what my point is!" said Ayumi. "There are men who really love their girlfriends – "

She stopped, frightened by his expression.

Shinsou tried to calm himself.

"I'll admit it's hard on you, putting up with my job," he said, trying to be reasonable, "Give me some time. We're working on a case that's been in a deadlock for months, but we've found someone who might provide us with a way to break through it. I promise once we've solved this, I'll take some time off and make it up to you."

"How long will that be?" asked Ayumi.

"I don't know," said Shinsou, "Months, maybe."

She looked disconsolate.

"Well, maybe before you go off on this working trip, you could take some time off for us to spend together."

"I'm sorry, Ayumi-chan, I'd like to, but I'm afraid I can't," said Shinsou, "There's a lot of preparation to be done. Some of my colleagues are new, and I need to prepare them properly."

Ayumi looked sulky. "You're just making excuses," she said, sniffing.

Shinsou looked at her.

"Look," he said slowly, "This isn't like some business work trip. It's not fun and games. People are getting murdered. I just had news that one of my colleagues, an undercover agent, was murdered. In a nutshell, it's dangerous. I can't take leave to spend time with you because I need to prepare these people enough so that all of us can come back alive."

Ayumi looked a little frightened.

"But, Hitoshi, it's not much different from working in a hero agency, is it?" she said, "the villains there are dangerous too, and they kill people."

"It's not exactly the same," said Shinsou, "I suppose it's difficult for you to understand what I'm doing – "

"Of course it is," she said immediately. "How could I? If I ask you anything about your work, you say it's confidential. I don't know what you do, who you work with, where you go – "

"That's true," said Shinsou, patiently, "I can't tell you what I do, but as a matter of fact, you could meet my colleagues, if you want. There'll be a staff outing some time in April. I'll bring you along. How's that?"

Her face brightened. "Yes, I'd like to go."

"And give me a bit of time," he said, "Once we close this case, I'll spend more time with you."

.

.

Later, when Ayumi had gone off to the ladies' room to powder her nose, Shinsou found himself staring at the discarded necklace, which had been placed to one side on the table and forgotten. He had given it to her long ago, when they had first started dating.

"Ayumi never used to be like this, in the past," he thought, "She's completely different from the way she used to be. She used to support everything I did. She's become paranoid about anything to do with my job. We never have a single meetup where she doesn't bring up how unhappy she is that I'm working at the Directorate."

He watched her as she emerged from the powder room and made her way back to their table. She noticed the necklace, scooped it up, and deposited it in her purse. To Shinsou, the action seemed to perversely symbolise the discarding of their previous comfortable relationship, and its replacement with the current conflict-filled one.

"She's changed. I must have changed, too. I don't know what we can do, to turn things around, and make them the way they used to be."

It was a problem he thought about long after the dinner was over, but the answers never came.


	10. (PART TWO) Kamone

**PART TWO**

 **10 KAMONE**

Misa was sitting on a bench near the main row of shops in Kamone, a small town nestled among the mountains outside Fukuchiyama, a city in Kyoto Prefecture. She was wearing a short, blonde wig and glasses, and she was warmly dressed in a thick jacket and jeans, for it was coming to the end of winter. She appeared to be arranging the items in her backpack, but she was actually keeping an eye out for an elderly man whom she knew would be walking by soon.

A middle-aged woman walked past. If someone had looked closely at her, they might have noticed the slightly blank expression on her face. She disappeared inside a nearby convenience store.

The elderly man appeared a few minutes later. He did not seem to notice Misa, but hobbled forward and eventually vanished into the same convenience store.

Misa finished arranging the things in her backpack, then stood up and looked around. It was ten in the morning, and the townspeople were out and about, doing their daily errands. Picking up her backpack, she slung it over her shoulder and walked over to the store.

There were quite a number of shoppers milling around the front of the store, but the rear was empty, save for the old man standing next to the middle-aged woman. There was a store room at the back of the shop where goods were kept, but the door was locked. Misa did not say anything when she saw the old man and the woman, but grasped both by the arms and quickly phased them through the wall into the store room behind. They had chosen that convenience store because it did not possess any CCTV cameras.

Once they had entered the store room, the old man took a piece of paper and a purse out of the woman's bag and gave it to Misa.

"Here's the list," he said, "I told her to write it down. Don't forget to keep the receipts. You remember which shops, don't you?"

Misa nodded. She looked at him, fascinated. Shinsou had brought several disguises along, and although she had already been watching him don them for the past few days, she still felt amazed whenever she saw him at it. He was really good. He had been doing it for years now, and seemed quite nonchalant about it. He was quick when applying the makeup, and he could act the part. Although he was a few inches shy of six feet, he somehow managed to make the old man look shrunken, and everything else was there … the quavering voice, the gait, the facial expressions ...

The woman's name was Fukuda, and she was one of the servants who worked in the Hikari cult house they were monitoring. Shinsou had asked her the time, and had then brainwashed her into entering the convenience store before him. He had then brainwashed all the shoppers at the rear of the store into moving to the front. He was now going to interrogate Fukuda, and he wanted Misa to do the woman's shopping for her so that she would still be able to return to the house at the usual time.

"You've been here previously and done this before, haven't you?" said Misa, curiously, "How did you manage to get into the store room, then?"

"There are several ways," he said, looking around to see if there was a place where he could seat the woman and himself, "I could have picked the lock, or brainwashed the shopkeeper into unlocking the door. I chose to brainwash him into making me a duplicate key, in the end. It was easier."

Misa made her way out of the store with the list. She had initially worried that the shopkeeper might enter the store room to get something and catch Shinsou and the woman there, before she realised that Shinsou could easily solve the matter by brainwashing him.

She managed to buy everything within an hour. Shinsou had been to the town some months ago and had actually interrogated the same woman before. He had already known her habits from that time. She usually came to the town three times a week, frequented the same shops, and bought almost the same items.

Misa handed the bags of shopping to Fukuda, who, at Shinsou's bidding, proceeded to make her way out of the shop and back to the house where she worked. Misa left the shop first and made her way to the car which they had parked in an alley nearby. She waited until Shinsou had joined her, and they then drove back to their camp.

"Nothing new to report," said Shinsou, "Let's hope for something better next week."

Misa nodded. He had already warned her that the assignment might prove fruitless. They could wait for weeks, or months, and come up with nothing. Aizawa had sent two scouts to Kamone to monitor the house for the past few months, and they knew that at most times, it was usually just occupied by a couple of servants. Occasionally there would be visitors. The scouts had informed Aizawa whenever anyone new turned up, but by the time Shinsou managed to make his way there, the visitors would invariably have left.

They had taken over the scouts' camp. It consisted of a small tent hidden in a densely forested area not far from the house. The scouts had also shown them a place where they had hidden their own car, covering it with a tarpaulin and then camouflaging it with snow and branches, and they had followed suit.

There was a small portable generator outside the tent, and inside there was a small heater, and the laptop and other equipment the scouts had been using to monitor the house. Shinsou and Misa changed out of their disguises, after which the former started replaying that morning's footage to see if they had missed out on anything while interrogating Fukuda, while Misa went off to prepare a simple meal.

"Have a look at this," said Shinsou, suddenly.

Misa came over. Over the past week she had become quite familiar with the people staying in the house, but now there were two men whom she didn't recognise, seated in the parlour.

"They must have dropped by unexpectedly," said Misa, "because that lady didn't mention anything about them when you interviewed her just now, did she?"

They had bugged the parlour, as well. They played the recording, but the men were mostly silent, except that one commented on the architecture of the house a few times.

Shinsou checked the monitors. "They're walking around the grounds now." He began rummaging in one of the bags, and she saw that he was taking out his makeup kit and the recording equipment.

"Are we going over?" asked Misa.

"Yes,"he said, "Just let me change my face a bit, in case I need to take the hood off. If people see a hooded man walking up to them, they tend to scream and run instead of answering, and that makes brainwashing difficult."

He was somehow able to alter the appearance of his face considerably just by applying makeup and wearing different coloured contact lenses and a wig. When he was done, Misa genuinely couldn't recognise him. They put hoods on, so that their faces could not be seen, and started making their way toward the house. Shinsou appreciated how much easier it was to move around with Misa. They were able to make their way rapidly through the trees, phasing, which was much faster and quieter than doing it the normal way, and snowdrifts were easier to navigate.

When they were nearing the house, Misa phased the both of them underground. Shinsou was not too fond of walking underground; he lost a lot of sensation in his body when they were phasing, so the cold did not bother him. But although there was enough air to breathe, it tended to feel stifling after a while.

The Hikari house was built mainly in traditional Japanese style, with most of the rooms having tatami matting and shoji doors. It was extensive, with ten large bedrooms distributed among its two storeys in addition to the parlour and kitchen on the ground floor. There was also a library on the ground floor, with shelves loaded with books, several chairs and tables, and an attached bathroom.

A car was parked outside the house. There was also a single-storey outhouse located separately at one end of the garden which looked as if it might serve any number of purposes, such as a more private meeting room or a spare bedroom.

The house also possessed a basement. Misa had discovered this on the second night, when she had stealthily entered alone to have a look around. The scouts must have missed out on it, for they had never mentioned it to any of them. The basement had several rows of chairs and a raised stage, and looked as if it might serve as an auditorium.

Using their periscopes, they could see the men returning to the house. Hurrying, they managed to catch up with them near the flight of stairs leading to the basement, which was next to the house entrance.

"That beer just now was good," said one of the men, "I don't mind having another."

"Me too,"said the other, "But let's take it downstairs. My legs are getting too stiff to sit on tatami."

"You're only good with your paws," said the first man. He then went off, presumably to the kitchen, while the second proceeded to make his way down the stairs.

Misa phased herself and Shinsou down, and they emerged in one corner of the basement. Now that they were able to conceal themselves behind the chairs, it was easier to observe the man. He had seated himself near the stairs. He was short and broad-chested, and had a mole's head. Instead of hands, he had two large paws.

The other man came down presently, carrying three cans of beer. He looked to be in his fifties, was tall and thin, with hair slicked back, and wore glasses.

"Who's the third beer for?" asked the mole.

"Me," said the tall man. "Two for me, one for you."

"Greedy bastard," said the mole.

The tall man was looking around the basement.

"Concrete and dullness below, art and wood above," he said.

The mole didn't seem very interested. His paws looked awkward but they were deft enough handling the beer can. He took another sip of beer, and gave a small belch.

"I would enjoy fixing up this house," said the tall man, "flooring and roof. Art, Mole, that's what building is about. Blending in with nature. But there's no art in doing all these dull underground warehouses. Even this basement was such a bore to do. Reinforced concrete. But concrete's not so bad if it's used for something traditional, like that castle we did in Shizuoka."

"Anyway, Obsidian's the one who did most of the work on the warehouses, not you, Citadel," said Mole.

"That's why I chose him," said Citadel, "He's almost as brilliant as me, but he doesn't mind all these mundane jobs."

"I'm not interested in architecture," said Mole. "Are we done here? We frightened the servants, popping up suddenly. I already told you the other day, I'd finished tunnelling to here and Obsidian had done everything up, including the sliding door."

"Well, I'm in charge of the Stone Masons, I still have to check things have been done properly, don't I?" said Citadel, "And I'd wanted to see this charming house at last. Don't complain. You're enjoying the beer, aren't you?"

"I want to get back to my digging," said Mole, "We're behind schedule. It's much harder digging in winter." He deposited his empty beer can on one of the chairs, heaved himself to his feet, and began making his way to one end of the room.

"You're only interested in digging,"said Citadel, dismissively.

Mole lifted a picture that was hanging on the wall, and pressed a button behind it. To Shinsou and Misa's amazement, part of the wall slid open to reveal a tunnel.

"Are you coming?" said Mole.

"I'm finishing my second beer first," said Citadel.

Mole vanished into the blackness of the tunnel, and the wall slid shut behind him.

Before Misa knew what was happening, Shinsou had removed his hood, climbed out from beneath the chairs, and was walking toward Citadel.

"Good afternoon," she heard him saying.

Citadel looked alarmed; he dropped his can of beer.

"Who are you – ?" His face became blank.

Shinsou went over to the wall and pressed the button, so that the tunnel door slid open again. Misa followed, bringing a flashlight along. The tunnel ended in an elevator landing only a few metres down. A button on the wall opened the sliding wall from inside.

"Interesting," said Shinsou, "No one would have guessed it was here." He glanced at Citadel. "We'll make him tell us about it."

"I guess I should have placed a camera here, last week," said Misa, "I'll do it now."

She set up one of Magnetron's tiny, discreet cameras in a corner near the ceiling of the basement, while Shinsou looked around, trying to decide on a good place for the interrogation.

"Here looks about right," he said, going over to a far corner of the room, "You keep an eye on that tunnel door and the basement stairs. If anyone comes, phase us all under the ground."

Misa set up one another camera at the landing above the basement stairs, and also placed a listening device in the tunnel. She then went back to the basement and sat near Shinsou with the monitoring equipment.

Shinsou was questioning Citadel.

"My name is Itsuki Hasegawa," said Citadel, "also called Citadel. I used to be Senior Partner at my family's firm, Hasegawa Architects."

"Isn't that related to Hasegawa Construction that's been in trouble lately?" asked Shinsou.

"That was because a large group of all of us left to join Hikari," said Citadel, "All the top level talent. We left even though we were halfway through many major projects … we didn't care, Hikari specially came and headhunted all of us. The company had to scramble to fill all our posts … they couldn't find anyone as good … there was chaos, safety and building standards lapsed. But that has nothing to do with us any more."

"What job did Hikari enlist you for?" asked Shinsou.

"Building," said Citadel promptly, "We are the Stone Masons, probably the most brilliant builders found anywhere in Japan, perhaps even in the world. We've all been specially headhunted for our Quirks. Architecture, excavation, construction, power generation, roads … we do everything."

"What do you build?" asked Shinsou, looking at him intently.

"Our main work is to build underground complexes for Hikari," said Citadel, "We all have super powers that help us to produce impressive structures in record times. All of us have Quirks that specialise in this field, especially in building underground. We have people who can control and move soil, or shape and mould rock and concrete, and so on."

"What do these underground complexes contain?" asked Shinsou.

"Many things," said Citadel, "Living spaces, laboratories, factories, warehouses. But most of all, weapons storage. There will be explosives, armoured tanks, helicopters … all the armaments of war."

Misa turned from the monitoring equipment to see if Shinsou was feeling as astonished as she was.

"Tanks and helicopters?" said Shinsou, "What for?"

"World War III," said Citadel, "That's right. World War III. The coming Armageddon. Only members of Hikari will survive. That's why we have to recruit everyone, to save them."

Misa saw something on her monitor screen.

"Shinsou-san!" she said sharply, "Someone's coming toward the basement!"

Shinsou hurriedly gathered up the recording equipment, while Misa hastily deposited her monitoring equipment in a bag. Then, placing her hands on Citadel and Shinsou, she phased them all under the ground. She had to allow their heads to remain above ground because the basement floor was made of concrete and it would have been difficult to breathe. Fortunately, the chairs were concealing them.

Fukuda was coming down the stairs to check on Citadel and Mole. She saw Mole's discarded beer can on the chair and Citadel's spilled beer, and began cleaning it up.

Swift footsteps could suddenly be heard, and the tunnel door slid open. Misa saw that the tunnel was now dimly lit. A man whom she didn't recognise came out.

"Where is Hasegawa-san?" he asked, seeing the servant.

"I don't know, Hatano-san," she said, bowing respectfully, "I think he has gone back together with Masuda-san. They left their empty beer cans here." She held a can up.

"Well, we've been waiting for him for a while, there's supposed to be a meeting," said the man, "Never mind, then." And he turned and hurried back into the tunnel.

Misa waited till Fukuda had returned upstairs, and then phased them all out. Shinsou, with a resigned look on his face, released Citadel and told him to go back down the tunnel and attend his meeting. When he had gone, they looked at each other.

"Well, it's too bad, we were getting somewhere," said Shinsou, "We'll have to try finding him again and resuming the interview. Let's follow him down the tunnel, shall we?"

"Perhaps we should wait until night," said Misa, nervously.

"They're having a meeting now," said Shinsou, "I hope that means there'll be fewer people coming down the tunnel. And you can phase us into the tunnel wall if anyone comes."

They went in. Citadel must have switched off any lights there were, for it was dark. They came to the elevator landing. Shinsou's flashlight illuminated another door beside the elevator doors which, when opened, revealed the top of a flight of stairs.

"I think we can take the elevator," said Shinsou, "You can phase us out just before we reach the bottom, in case there are people there."

The elevator had only two buttons, the upper one marked "G" and the lower one "B". Shinsou pressed "B" and the elevator began moving down. It continued descending for quite a while, and then, as it began to slow, Misa grasped Shinsou by the arm and phased them through the wall.

She phased them down right next to the elevator, and when she heard the doors open, stopped. There was silence, and then she cautiously poked a periscope out. She then phased the both of them out, and Shinsou found they were standing in darkness.

He brought the flashlight out. A tunnel stretched before them, disappearing into the distance. They set off down it, and he switched the flashlight off, in case someone coming from the opposite direction saw them. Mole, for instance, certainly appeared to have no qualms about moving about in darkness.

They stumbled along in the darkness for what seemed a long time. Eventually, they collided into what seemed to be a wall. They had reached the end of the tunnel. Shinsou switched on his flashlight, and it illuminated a door.

Misa selected a periscope and cautiously phased it through the door, and looked out.

"I'll phase us through," she said, "and you can see for yourself."

They moved through the door, and Shinsou gave a small gasp.

They were standing in a vast, underground cavern. It was man-made, for the floor and walls were regular and not natural. Above them, the ceiling was not visible in darkness. There were dim lights scattered at intervals around, hardly penetrating the gloom. There were no people around, but in the distance they saw that it was much more brightly-lit, and the sounds of construction work emanated from there.

"That looks like another door at the other end, in the direction of the bright lights," said Shinsou, "Shall we have a look?"

They skirted round the perimeter of the cavern, so that Misa could phase them into the wall if anyone came. As they approached, they saw that it was similar to the setup back at the Hikari basement, where there was not only a door but also an elevator next to it.

Misa poked a periscope through the door, but all was in darkness. Shinsou cautiously opened it, and they saw the beginnings of a flight of stairs.

"If these lead to the top of the cavern, I don't think I want to climb so many stairs," he said, "Let's try the elevator again."

The elevator again had only two buttons, and this time Shinsou pressed "G". They moved upward for a while, and then, as the elevator began to slow, Misa grasped Shinsou by the arm and phased them through the wall.

They poked their periscopes out of the ground to have a look, and then Misa phased them up. They rose up above the surface, and spontaneously took their hoods off and smiled at each other. After the long walk in the tunnel in pitch blackness, and the lengthy trek around the edge of the cavern in gloom, the darkness had now fallen away, and they saw the afternoon sun, its light glowing warm on the surrounding snow, and in front of them a mountainside covered with a winter wonderland of snow-covered firs.


	11. The Recruits

**11 THE RECRUITS**

Shinsou and Misa spent about a minute looking at the scene, before placing their hoods back on. There was a small house next to them, where the elevator was, but a clump of bushes was hiding them from it. A road led from the house, curving down the mountain, disappearing into the distance. Several large lorries were parked nearby, some empty, some filled with soil and rocks.

They phased underground, going down the mountain, following the road, until they came to a high wall. There was a gate here, and the road led out of it.

"This looks like private property," said Shinsou, "I'm guessing that either the Hikari cult bought this land, or it belongs to some rich Hikari member. They've connected this place to the Kamone house by building that tunnel, and they're building an underground warehouse here. It's located so far in that no one can see any construction going on from the main road. You'd only know by the trucks going in and out."

He looked at his watch.

"Let's get back to our camp," he said, "I want to continue interrogating that fellow Citadel, and there must be others here, like Mole, whom we can interview too. But there's no point trying now, since they're having a meeting. We can do it tonight or during the following nights. If they're building something here, it doesn't look like they'll be going away anytime soon."

However, when they arrived back at the Kamone house and were making their way through the garden, Misa happened to notice through her periscope that there was a minibus in the driveway. She phased them over to a clump of bushes so that they could surface and talk.

"Everything seems to be happening at once," remarked Shinsou, "It's all right, let's go back to our camp and see what the monitoring equipment has picked up. We can come back quickly enough, if we have to."

Back at the camp, the footage showed that there were actually two minibuses and a car which had arrived about half an hour earlier. About twenty people had gotten down from the buses, and four from the car. The people in the buses were wearing a uniform consisting of white shirt and black pants. These comprised twelve men and eight women, some young, some older. The uniformed men had taken two bedrooms and the women one. Two of the men from the car wore a different uniform, in navy blue, and appeared to be in charge of security. They had set up cameras in several areas, including the uniformed group's bedrooms, and were using the outhouse as the surveillance monitoring room.

"It's fortunate they don't seem to have noticed our cameras," said Shinsou, "Magnetron really specialises in invisibility and miniaturisation."

He seemed to be thinking.

"I'm guessing that those people in black and white uniforms are new recruits," he said after a while, "Shibata had just been recruited when we lost contact with him here. The cult probably would have made the recruits remove all communication devices like cell phones. Shibata might have kept his, and been discovered here. That's why his last cell phone signal was recorded here."

"They're keeping the recruits under pretty tight surveillance," said Misa.

"They probably don't want any of them to have second thoughts and begin trying for an escape," said Shinsou.

"So I guess we'll be interrogating them tonight?" said Misa.

"I think they'll be here for a while," said Shinsou, "They're setting up what looks like a propaganda production centre in one of the rooms. I see a lot of brochures and a couple of printers and laptops there."

He paused.

"There are two group leaders, did you notice?" he said, "Wearing white shirts and navy blue pants instead of black, and going around giving instructions to the rest about setting up things. I think we can try interrogating at least one of them tonight. They should be able to tell us what's going on.

"I want to brainwash the surveillance team too," he continued, "and see what their shift is like. If we interview the recruits, it'll have to be at night when they're asleep. We'd have to electronically jam the camera in their bedroom and play a recorded loop so that we won't be seen abducting the recruits. It might be easier to just brainwash whoever's doing the surveillance."

He grinned at Misa.

"I think we should get some rest now," he said, "tonight will be a busy night."

.

.

The recruits went to bed early, around nine in the evening, followed by the group leaders. The servants went to bed at ten, as they usually did.

Shinsou decided they could start moving at around eleven. He had disguised himself to look similar to Akiyama, one of the servants in the house who was quite shy and retiring. Akiyama had about the same build as him, and he was gambling that the newcomers wouldn't be familiar enough with the servants to know the difference. He had gotten Misa to phase over to the kitchen and filch six cans of beer.

Misa left Shinsou at the main house, so that the guard would see him walking over to the outhouse. She then phased herself underground and over to the outhouse.

The guard was waiting at the door with a slightly suspicious expression on his face when Shinsou appeared.

"We thought you might like some beer to help you pass the time during your night shift," he said, bowing deferentially.

"That's kind of you, but – " The guard's face had gone blank.

After quizzing the guard, Shinsou found out that his name was Ito, and that he would be doing the night shifts for the length of his stay there while the other guard did the day shifts. He tried quizzing the guard about the purpose of the cult members' stay here, but the man didn't seem to know. He then waited with the guard and set up the recording equipment while Misa went off to get the group leader.

When she arrived at the group leaders' bedroom, the lights were out, but she discovered that they were lying awake in bed and still discussing something. She silently brought out a canister and began releasing sleeping gas into the room. She had put on a mask herself so that the gas wouldn't affect her.

"I'm beginning to feel quite sleepy," said one of the leaders, after a few minutes, "Let's sleep. We can continue discussing this tomorrow."

"All right," agreed the other.

Misa waited till the first leader's breathing seemed to indicate he had fallen asleep, then phased over to the second and, surfacing near him, phased him under the ground.

He was very drowsy, but still awake, which suited her otherwise they'd have to wait for him to wake up for the interview. He started flailing about weakly when he realised someone was abducting him, but since he was in phase mode, he couldn't grasp anything. Misa dragged him underground over to the outhouse. It was a bit like dragging someone underwater, and she was thankful he wasn't too large a man.

She surfaced with him inside the outhouse, but only let his head emerge, so that his body was still bound. Shinsou immediately blindfolded the man before he could take a good look at them.

"Don't struggle," said Shinsou, "We won't hurt you."

"Who are you?" asked the man weakly, before falling silent.

The surveillance guard was sitting in a corner, blank-faced. Misa moved over to the surveillance monitors to keep watch while Shinsou did the interrogation.

"My name is Iemasa Suzuki," said the group leader, in response to Shinsou's questioning, "We've arrived here in Kamone for the initiation of the new recruits."

"When will that be?" asked Shinsou.

"In two days' time," said Suzuki, "Ogawa-san will be coming to conduct it."

"Who is he?"

"He is the one of the leaders of our Hikari house in Shizuoka," answered Suzuki, "He goes by the other name of Graveyard."

Misa remembered the horrible, corpselike face of the villain, the one who could kill people by dissolving their flesh.

"Tell me about the Hikari house in Shizuoka," said Shinsou.

"It is a house in Ematsu in the mountains," said Suzuki, "I serve there with twenty other members. We work to produce materials to promote the beliefs of Hikari."

"So there are only twenty Hikari members in the house?" said Shinsou.

"There are twenty working with me," answered Suzuki.

"What else is done in that house besides producing materials?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not know," said Suzuki.

"Is Ogawa the only person in charge there?"

"There is also Uchida-san, sometimes called Cyanide," said Suzuki, "and Noguchi-san, who is called Maniac."

"Why don't you hold the initiation at Ematsu, then?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not know," said Suzuki.

"Who is the top leader in Hikari?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not know his name," said Suzuki, "except that he is called the Enlightened One."

"What is your task here in Kamone, then?"

"To train and discipline the recruits," said Suzuki, "To keep them busy with tasks, and prepare the initiation room for the ceremony."

Shinsou tried several more questions, but nothing else very useful came up. Suzuki did not know anything else about the Enlightened One, he did not know what else Graveyard and the other leaders did, he did not know anything about the other operations of Hikari, and he could not even remember his own personal history.

At this moment, Misa suddenly said, "Shinsou-san! The other security guard has left his room. He's walking through the parlour."

"Is he coming here?" asked Shinsou. He had started keeping away the recording equipment.

"It looks like it," said Misa, "He's holding something. Maybe he wants to give it to our guard here."

"Get into the wardrobe with Suzuki and the equipment, will you?" said Shinsou. There was a wardrobe in one corner of the room, probably for guests who wanted to use the outhouse as a bedroom.

Shinsou ordered Suzuki to walk over to the wardrobe and hide inside. He then hurriedly opened the cans of beer and emptied them into the bushes outside, placed the empty cans on the table inside the surveillance room, then made Ito sit at the table and lay his head down on it.

He went over to the wardrobe and squeezed in together with Misa and Suzuki.

"Awaken," he called out to the guard.

Ito stirred, and sat up. He blinked several times, looked at his watch, and then saw the empty beer cans next to him on the table. His eyes widened in horror.

"No," he said to himself, "I could not have drunk so much beer and fallen asleep …"

At this moment, the other guard came in. He laughed heartily when he saw all the cans of beer on the table.

"I came because I woke up and realised I forgot to pass this to you," he said, holding out a desktop calendar with a picture of a woman in a bikini on it, "but I see you've found other forms of entertainment."

Ito looked grumpy. "You could just have brought it over in the morning."

The other guard was still laughing.

"I didn't know you could drink so much." He turned to leave, "Don't fall asleep, mind."

"Of course not!" Ito looked defensive.

"Now what?" whispered Misa, once the second guard had left.

"Well, we're about done with this chap Suzuki, anyway," whispered Shinsou, "I don't think we're going to get anything more out of him. But I want to interview a few of the recruits tonight."

"Then you've got to brainwash the guard again," whispered Misa, "but it'll be really odd if you appear and offer him more beer."

"Can you check if that other guard has gone yet?" whispered Shinsou, "And get us another four cans of beer from the kitchen."

Fortunately, the kitchen had become well-stocked with several different brands of beer because Fukuda must have made an extra trip to town to buy supplies for the initiation. Obviously the Hikari members were fond of beer. Misa came back with the cans, and then phased Shinsou and Suzuki through the rear of the wardrobe and the wall of the outhouse back into the garden. Shinsou then made Suzuki hold the cans of beer and walk round to the outhouse door and knock on it.

Ito opened the door cautiously. He was obviously wondering how anyone had managed to reach the outhouse without having been detected on the cameras.

Suzuki, holding the cans of beer, bowed low. Shinsou, who was standing just behind the door with Misa ready to phase him into hiding if necessary, said clearly, "Ito-san."

Ito looked shocked. "Suzuki-san?" His face went blank.

Shinsou ordered the brainwashed Ito to sit down. He decided it would be odd if Ito's breath didn't smell of beer when there were so many empty cans next to him, so he made the guard drink the beer. He looked tipsy after the third can, so Shinsou emptied the last can into the bushes outside.

In the meantime, Misa had begun leading Suzuki back to his bedroom. She then removed the sleeping gas canister from his room; she had left it there to make sure his roommate wouldn't wake up and look for him.

She brought the canister over to one of the recruits' bedrooms, and similarly abducted one of them.

They managed to interview three recruits that night. Misa brought the second one over when Shinsou was only halfway through the first interview, to give the recruit time to wake up. She blindfolded and bound him, and when he woke up, Shinsou immediately brainwashed him. They let him sit there, brainwashed, until Shinsou had finished with the first recruit.

They did the same with the third recruit. Misa used up a few canisters of gas because she had taken the recruits from the three different rooms. She felt it was better than to take all three from the same room, only to have them all wake up in the morning exchanging notes on how they'd all had the same peculiar dream of being abducted during the night. She placed listening devices in all the bedrooms.

Shinsou discovered that the three recruits were all highly educated. One was a medical doctor, the second had a Doctorate in genetics, and the third was a physicist. One had been recruited at a Hikari centre but the other two appeared to have been headhunted at their workplaces. They were unable to tell Shinsou anything about their past, except for their academic qualifications. They knew they had to follow the Enlightened One but they did not know who he was. When Shinsou asked them if it was odd they were following someone whom they did not know, they did not think this strange. They said that they would be given their specific tasks after the initiation, and all believed Hikari was the way to a new world and a bright and glorious future.

Shinsou woke Ito up again before they left. Misa almost felt sorry for the poor man. He looked absolutely horrified and incredulous when he saw the extra cans of beer on the table, and he promptly hid all the cans in a plastic bag, obviously planning to discreetly dispose of them.

Dawn was approaching by the time they arrived back at their camp. Shinsou told Misa to get some sleep first, and that he would rest later when she got up. He didn't appear tired, though, when she woke up later that morning. He had been busy monitoring the recruits' activities.

"So far, so good," he said, when he saw that Misa was awake, "Ito had breakfast in the kitchen and has been looking extremely uncomfortable every time he sees Akiyama and Suzuki, but I haven't actually seen him speak to them. When Suzuki woke this morning, he told his roommate he'd had an odd dream last night but that was about it. The physicist said something similar to one of the other cult members, but the other two recruits didn't say anything."

"That's good," said Misa, "Aren't you going to get any rest?"

"In a while," he said, "I normally don't sleep much."

They spent the rest of the day monitoring the recruits. Some were busy in the propaganda room, printing and folding brochures. Some were cleaning and decorating the basement room, and it looked as if the initiation ceremony was going to be held there. Some were doing chores around the house, while the rest were using the library.

That night, they interviewed another six recruits. Shinsou disguised himself as Akiyama again, and turned up at the outhouse with more filched beer. Ito tried to vigorously refuse before becoming brainwashed again.

The night went off uneventfully. Shinsou got Misa to put sleeping gas in the other surveillance guard's room too, in case he woke up and came over to talk to Ito again. The recruits this time were a mixed bunch. Three again were highly educated: another geneticist, a doctor and an engineer. The other three were a graphic designer, a university student whose Quirk allowed her to mould rock, and a wealthy businessman. The former three had been headhunted at their workplaces, while the latter had been recruited at various Hikari centres.

After noon the following day, Graveyard arrived together with an entourage of six other cars. He was accompanied by two others in his car. Misa recognised one of them as Carousel, the blue-skinned villain whose Quirk could disorientate people. The other man had a hyena's head. After listening to some of the conversation in the parlour, they discovered that his name was Maniac.

The other occupants of the cars appeared to be cult members who were present to provide extra security and take part in the ceremony. They were wearing uniforms similar to Suzuki, white shirts with dark blue pants. Graveyard and the other two villains wore ordinary clothes.

In the late afternoon, Shinsou went off to get a bit of rest, and Misa took over the monitoring. She watched as Fukuda served the villains drinks in the parlour. The servant stumbled while holding the tray, and the drinks spilled onto Maniac.

Misa could not see Graveyard's face clearly, but she saw him get to his feet. Fukuda was bowing and profusely apologising. She looked at Graveyard coming over to her, and fell in desperation at his feet.

Graveyard reached a hand out, and Fukuda backed away. Turning, she would have run from the room, but Maniac and Carousel jumped up and restrained her. Misa watched in horror as Graveyard placed his hand on the woman's face.

She turned the volume of the listening equipment down so that she would not hear the woman's screams. The other two villains were laughing. Some of the cult members were standing nearby, watching.

Misa averted her eyes from the monitor, feeling sick. She could see Graveyard's hideous, corpselike face in her mind. They would be interrogating him later that night, and she was not looking forward to it at all.


	12. The Initiation

**12 THE INITIATION**

Shinsou later watched the recorded footage of Fukuda's murder, and, seeing the expression on Misa's face, suggested that they watch the initiation ceremony from the camp instead of being present in the room, as they had previously planned. Misa was hesitant. The ceremony was a significant event, and they might miss something important. But Shinsou didn't seem to think so.

"It'll probably be a long and tedious affair, with a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric," he said, "some of these cults do really bizarre things. It might be better to save our energy for interrogating Graveyard later. Besides, there are a lot more cult members around the place now, and it'll be trickier for us to stay out of sight."

He turned out to be right. The cult had an early dinner, and the ceremony then commenced and went on for four hours. There were long speeches by the cult leaders, and the recruits also took turns to speak as well. They then took a pledge, and lined up to be imprinted with the flame tattoo, followed by some sort of pronouncement over each recruit by Graveyard, who was dressed in ceremonial robes. Each pronouncement seemed to take an interminably long time. The cult members then proceeded to subject the recruits to several bizarre rituals, including hanging them upside down and giving them electric shocks, and then consuming what must have been hallucinogenic drugs, to judge by their behaviour afterward.

"It's just as well we interviewed the recruits earlier," said Shinsou, "I don't think any of them will be in a state fit for interrogation after this."

Misa had been watching one of the recruits for a while. She had noticed her before, a small, thin, bespectacled teenager with short hair, who slouched and was always looking timid and fearful.

Shinsou had noticed her, too. She had received her tattoo and pronouncement, but after that, when the electric shock treatment started, she had gone to the very back of the queue, so that she would be the last to go. By the time there were only three more recruits left in the queue, things in the room had become chaotic, because a lot of the cult members had become high on the drugs. The teenage girl had promptly slipped away without anyone noticing, and had hidden herself behind some chairs at the back of the room.

"Looks like she's realised that joining the cult isn't turning out to be such a good deal, after all," commented Shinsou.

"We should interview her," said Misa, looking anxiously at him, "All the other members don't seem capable of independent thought any more. If there's even one that is, she might be able to give us some useful information."

"Well, our priority is to interrogate Graveyard first," said Shinsou, "and then the other villains. Because they're more high-ranking, they're the ones most likely to tell us something useful. There's no telling how that's going to turn out. But if we manage to complete that successfully, we'll have a go at her."

It was a while before the initiation ended. When it looked as if it was going to do so, Shinsou and Misa hurriedly left the camp and made their way over to the house. They cautiously surfaced in a corner of the basement. The first thing they saw was the teenage girl quietly crawling out from her hiding place and joining the rest of the recruits as they began getting ready to file out of the room.

"Let's go over to Graveyard's room," whispered Shinsou.

They had decided to interrogate Graveyard inside his bedroom instead of in the surveillance room, since he was sleeping alone. He had taken a bedroom on the second floor. The walls of the house were made of wood and were thin, which made phasing from room to room rather tricky if one wanted to remain hidden. For rooms on the second floor, Misa preferred coming down by the roof. She phased them out from the basement and through the ground and then surfaced near a tree, then phased herself and Shinsou up the tree and came out near the roof. They then moved over to Graveyard's room, and phased themselves down.

Shinsou had disguised himself as the Akiyama look-alike again. He sat down in Graveyard's bedroom and waited, while Misa went over to the wardrobe and hid herself there.

It was about half an hour before Graveyard came. He was accompanied by Maniac and Carousel, who waited outside while he entered the room. He looked startled when he saw Shinsou there.

Shinsou quickly stood up.

"Ogawa-sama," he said, bowing, "I was just tidying your room."

Graveyard's corpselike face contorted into a furious scowl.

"Who said you could enter– " he snarled, before his face became blank.

Shinsou swiftly came near him and, keeping out of sight of the two villains outside, whispered, "Thank me loudly for tidying the room."

Graveyard did so.

"Now, tell Maniac and Carousel that you've decided to turn in for the night. Get angry with them if they object, and then close the door on them."

Shinsou then quickly left the room, bowed to the two villains outside, and started slowly down the corridor.

Graveyard was at the door. "I've decided to turn in for the night."

"What?" said Maniac, "But we're drinking, aren't we? And we're going to discuss turning this place into a more frequently-used facility."

His attention was on Graveyard, and he and Carousel didn't see Misa phasing Shinsou through the wall back into the bedroom.

"I said I've decided to turn in!" snapped Graveyard, "Don't bother me, or I'll kill you!"

He slid the shoji door shut.

Misa poked a periscope out. Maniac and Carousel were looking nonplussed. However, they didn't dare disturb Graveyard further.

"Weird," said Carousel, shaking his head, "Probably took too much acid."

Maniac shrugged, then threw his hyena head back and laughed, a strange, high-pitched giggle, "We can booze without him."

They went down the corridor, and disappeared down the stairs.

Shinsou had settled Graveyard in a corner of the room, together with the recording equipment. Misa had her hood on, and he put his on as well.

"Take this microphone," he said to Graveyard, "and speak into it quietly enough that no one outside this room will be able to hear us."

Graveyard's bedroom was at the end of the corridor, so there was only one room next to it, which happened to be Carousel and Maniac's. Shinsou asked Misa to keep watch and tell him if the two villains returned.

"Tell me your name and how you came to join Hikari," said Shinsou, beginning the interview.

"My name is Itsuo Ogawa," said Graveyard, "I was recruited by Hikari member Uchida, or Cyanide, whom I have known for a long time."

"Tell me more about Cyanide," said Shinsou.

"He is Hikari's leader at Ematsu," said Graveyard, "I take my orders from him. He is a second-tier leader, while I am third-tier. When I have shown myself to be competent and responsible enough, I will be promoted to second-tier."

"Third-tier?" said Shinsou, "How does that differ from second-tier?"

"Once we have been judged to have leadership potential, we start off as third-tier leaders," said Graveyard. "We take our orders from the second-tier leaders, and they evaluate our progress. They have been entrusted with more wide-ranging responsibilities, and may eventually be promoted to first-tier leaders."

"And what does that entail?" asked Shinsou.

"First-tier leaders are the ones who can have direct access to the Enlightened One," said Graveyard, "They are his most trusted henchmen, assisting him in executing his orders."

"Who is the Enlightened One?" asked Shinsou.

"He is Hikari's leader," said Graveyard.

"What is his real name?" persisted Shinsou.

"I do not know," said Graveyard.

"Do you know the Enlightened One's background, whereabouts, or what he looks like?" asked Shinsou, looking intently at him.

"No," answered Graveyard, "But when I become a first-tier leader, I will be given that privilege."

"Tell me about Ematsu, then," said Shinsou, "Why didn't you hold the initiation ceremony there?"

"We planned to," said Graveyard, "But on the spur of the moment Cyanide suddenly ordered that it be held here, because we plan to develop Kamone into one of our major weapons centres, and we want to begin using the facilities here more often. We gave the staff here very short notice that we were coming."

"Tell me where Ematsu is, and about the Hikari facility there," said Shinsou.

"It is in Shizuoka," said Graveyard, "We have about a hundred members there. The facility produces munitions and drugs for Hikari, as well as materials for propaganda."

"And your work consists of overseeing this?" said Shinsou.

"That," agreed Graveyard, "and also cleansing."

"Cleansing?" said Shinsou. He had, however, already guessed what that meant.

"Purifying the world of the Quirkless scum," said Graveyard, a fanatical expression on his bloated and discoloured face.

"Who is the one in Hikari who plans the cleansing?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not know," said Graveyard, "Cyanide gives me the list of Quirkless to cleanse. He does not say where it comes from."

"What are Hikari's plans for all these weapons?" said Shinsou, "Do you intend to start a war?"

"It is not Hikari that will start the war," said Graveyard, "The war will be started as a result of the wickedness of decadent countries. Nuclear Armageddon will come, and we must build up our arsenal in order to defend ourselves. Only Hikari members will survive. That is why we must convert all to joining us, and none must be allowed to leave subsequently, upon pain of death."

Shinsou continued to question Graveyard for over an hour, but found little else of value. The villain had carried out a considerable number of murders. He could not remember his earlier life before he had joined Hikari; other than the Ematsu base, he did not know of any other existing facilities, or other leaders besides Cyanide, or any other Hikari activities.

"I think we're about done, here," he said to Misa, at length. "If we want to find out more, especially regarding who the cult's founder is, we'll probably have to interview a first- or at least second-tier leader. I doubt Maniac or Carousel qualify, since they seem to be taking orders from this fellow; but we can see if they give us anything useful. Have they come back?"

Misa shook her head.

Shinsou ordered Graveyard to lie down on the bed and go to sleep. He and Misa then searched the rest of the house and the grounds, but did not find the two villains. The house was quiet; most of the other cult members had gone to bed.

"They seem to have left the premises," said Shinsou at last, "Well, I suppose we could try interrogating that frightened recruit."

They decided it would be safer to interview her in the surveillance room, even though it was likely the other recruits would be sound asleep from the drugs they had taken. This meant that Shinsou would have to brainwash Ito the surveillance guard again.

Shinsou, disguised as Akiyama and armed with beer, tried knocking on the outhouse door, but this time Ito refused to open it.

He knocked on the window. "Ito-san," he called, looking through the window.

Ito ignored him.

"I guess he's mortally afraid of waking up and finding more empty beer cans next to him again," Shinsou said to Misa, "We're going to have to think of something else. I'm going to let him see me walk back to the house with the beer. Come over and phase me back here, will you?"

When she had brought him back, not to the outhouse, but to some bushes some distance away where they could talk, he brought out a voice changer that Magnetron had designed.

"Fortunately, I have a backup plan," he said, and began tuning the voice changer. "Magnetron has somehow programmed this voice changer with a laser beam so that it can also throw its voice, if the target isn't too far away. That calendar is still on the table. You can phase me in until I'm right under it, and I'll make him think it's talking to him. I just need to get one word out of him."

"Calendar?" said Misa, "Why don't we use the maneki neko figurine that's on the side table instead?"

She was referring to a "waving cat" porcelain doll that was sitting on the aforementioned side table.

"He might not answer if a cat figurine talks to him," said Shinsou, "He'll probably become frightened and think it's possessed, and run away instead. Besides, it's easier to tune this voice changer to produce a woman's voice than a cat's."

"But it's really odd for a calendar to talk to him," said Misa, "It makes more sense if it's a doll."

"It's not just a calendar," said Shinsou, "There's a woman with a bikini on it."

"What difference does that make?" asked Misa.

"He won't care if a cat talks to him," said Shinsou, "But he will if a woman in a bikini does."

"Men!" thought Misa.

She could not see Shinsou's face because he had his hood on, but his voice sounded amused. "We can try both, if you don't believe me."

He tuned the voice changer, testing it until it produced something squeaky that could pass off as a cat's voice. Misa then phased them under the side table. She watched with her periscope as Shinsou aimed the laser pointer at the table base just under the cat, and spoke into the voice changer.

"Ito-san!" he called.

Ito started. He looked around, saw the cat, and got to his feet. He came over to the side table, peering at the cat.

"Ito-san!" said Shinsou, again.

Ito jumped. He stared at the cat, terrified, and then turned and bolted out the door.

Misa said in a resigned voice, "All right, you win."

"We'd better hide the cat," said Shinsou, "I don't think he'll come back into the room if it's still in here."

Misa picked the figurine up and hid it in the wardrobe.

"Let's get under the calendar now," said Shinsou. He was re-tuning the voice changer. "I hope he hasn't become so frightened that he'll run out even when a woman in a bikini talks to him."

Misa phased them under the table where the calendar was. Ito came back after a few minutes. He seemed frightened when he saw that the cat had disappeared, and wandered around the room for some time, searching for it. Fortunately, he did not look into the wardrobe.

After a while, he came back to the table where the surveillance equipment was, and sat down.

Shinsou waited a few more minutes to let him settle down, and then decided to begin.

"Ito-san," he cooed. He had managed to tune the voice changer so that it produced a remarkably sultry-sounding voice.

Ito looked up, startled. He glanced around, then leaned forward, gazing at the calendar.

"Ito-san," said Shinsou, again.

"Who … who is that speaking?" said Ito. His face promptly became blank.

Misa couldn't see Shinsou's face, but she could see him shaking with soundless laughter.

"Sometimes, I just don't believe we're doing this," she said, laughing a bit, herself.

She left Shinsou at the outhouse, and went over to the women recruits' bedroom to look for the teenager.

The bedroom was in darkness, but the girl wasn't asleep. She wasn't even in bed. She was sitting in a corner, her hand to the wall. Occasionally she would turn and check that none of her fellow cult members had woken up.

Misa went a little closer. She smelled something burning. She saw sparks flying from the girl's hand, and a faint wisp of smoke.

"She has some type of electrification Quirk," thought Misa, "I do believe she's trying to burn a hole in the wall so that she can escape!"

Misa had brought a canister of sleeping gas with her. She phased back outside into the garden, and then phased the nozzle of the canister through the wall so that it came out near where the girl was. She then began silently releasing the gas.

The girl seemed to become drowsy after a while, because she began pinching herself in order to keep awake. After a while, her head kept nodding. She jerked awake, then got up and went over to the bathroom to splash water on her face.

She came back to the corner, but then became drowsy again. She sat with her knees pulled up and rested her head on them. After about five minutes, Misa figured she should be sleepy enough, so she put a mask on, phased inside, and in a split second, grabbed the girl and phased her underground before she could cry out.

Sparks flew, and Misa felt the tingle of electricity. This disrupted her phasing, and she had to wait till it stopped before continuing.

She eventually surfaced inside the outhouse, and slowly phased the girl's head up until her eyes were showing. Shinsou immediately blindfolded her.

"Don't scream when we bring you up," he said quietly, "This is a knife I'm holding to your throat."

Misa slowly phased her out.

"Don't hurt me," whispered the girl, before falling silent.

"Sorry I took so long," said Misa, "She has some type of electrification Quirk, and I think she was trying to escape by burning a hole in the bedroom wall. I'm surprised the surveillance guard didn't spot her at it. I released the gas to make her drowsy, but even then she kept giving off sparks while we were coming here, and it kept disrupting my phasing."

"It's lucky you got to her before she burned the house down," said Shinsou. He started the interview.

"Tell me your name and age."

"My name is Mai Yamada," said the girl, "I'm fourteen years old."

"How did you become involved in Hikari?" asked Shinsou.

"A friend of mine brought me for their outreach programmes," said Mai, "At first, I was impressed with the good work they were doing. The staff talked to me, about changing the world. It sounded wonderful then, I could be part of it, I had never thought someone like me could be part of something important like that …"

"And do you still feel the same way about Hikari as you did in the beginning?"

"No," she said, "Things changed. I went to live with them in a commune after a while. But when one of the others wanted to go back and see her family, they wouldn't let her. They said she had to leave her worldly connections behind. And they took away our cell phones. When she insisted, they took her away. We never saw her again. The others thought she'd gone back to her family, but I overheard the leaders talking … saying that no one can leave, or their souls will be damned … to save such people the only thing they could do was kill them. I was afraid. I wanted to go home too, but after that I didn't dare try to.

"And finally we met with our Enlightened Leader, and after that the others around me changed. I couldn't have normal conversations with them any more. They only knew how to talk about the tasks they were supposed to do. Otherwise, they just said nothing."

"So you have met the Enlightened One?" said Shinsou, "What does he look like?"

"He's big and frightening," she said, "He has a black beard and long black hair. His eyes terrified me. I could feel his mind taking over me."

Shinsou paused, and he and Misa looked at each other.

Shinsou turned back to the girl. "Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, one brother and one sister."

"Which Middle School did you attend?"

"Asano Middle School."

Shinsou looked at Misa. "She still has her memories."

He said to Mai, "You don't seem to have lost your mind like the other members. Why is that?"

"I don't know," she said.

"Do you know the Enlightened One's name?"

"No."

"Where were you when you met him?"

"He came to our Hikari centre in Hakone."

"What was it like," persisted Shinsou, "when he spoke to you?"

"I don't know," she said, and even though she was in a brainwashed state, she seemed to be becoming agitated, "I was so frightened, just so frightened, through it all! I was so terrified! I almost fainted."

Misa was seated at the surveillance table, keeping watch and also listening to Mai Yamada. All of a sudden, she found she couldn't focus. She felt off-balance, as if she was upside down. Her body felt incredibly heavy. She found herself lying flat on the floor, her fingers trying to find something to grasp, to pull herself back the right way up. Her vision blurred, and the entire room seemed to be spinning. She closed her eyes, to shut out the sight.

She felt as if she was glued to the floor. She wanted to say something, talk to Shinsou, but couldn't say a word.

She heard the sounds of people approaching, and the door suddenly burst open. Maniac's hyena laugh resounded around the room, and the sounds of fighting ensued. They were attacking Shinsou, Misa knew. She tried desperately to move, but couldn't. The spinning sensation was too great. A feeling of despair descended upon her, as she realised that the game was up, and that she was powerless to do anything about it.


	13. The Chase

**13 THE CHASE**

I've got to get up, Misa thought desperately. She tried to move, but the feeling of disorientation was too great.

There was a sudden, sharp cry from the other end of the room, and Misa abruptly felt her mind clear. The spinning sensation stopped. She hurriedly sat up, and looked around.

Carousel was lying lifeless on the floor, a naginata protruding from his chest. A woman with pale, almost-white skin was slumped in a corner, her white hair spreading like a pool of silver around her head. The remains of a wooden chair lay broken around her.

Shinsou was still confronting the hyena-headed villain. She heard him say something, and Maniac's reply, after which the villain suddenly stopped moving, his face blank.

Misa hurried over. To her consternation, Shinsou was bleeding, and his left arm was hanging at an odd angle.

He was looking at Carousel. "I killed him by mistake. They came all at once, and with all that vertigo I just grabbed his naginata and jabbed blindly. I didn't have time to get them to talk, except for the hyena."

He glanced around. "The guard's gone … he must have woken up. The girl's bolted, too."

Ito was nowhere to be seen. Mai Yamada had also vanished.

"I don't know what happened – " Misa began, but Shinsou cut her short.

"We have to get out of here, quick," he said, "the surveillance guard will rouse the others."

He was already gathering up their bags and the recording equipment with his good arm.

"Let's go," he said, "They'll be coming soon."

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Back to the camp, of course," he said, sounding surprised.

Before he could stop her, she had lifted his shirt and was examining the wound in his back.

"This looks very bad," she said, "I want to bind it before you lose more blood."

"There's no time – " he began, but she cut him short.

"We can hide in the house, while I do that," she said firmly, "They'll be searching the grounds first. I'll bring you to the library bathroom where it'll be easy to wash the blood away."

She didn't wait to let him reply, but took the bags from him and phased them underground, heading toward the house. They came up in the bathroom, and she made him sit in the shower cubicle.

"There's no use me arguing with you, is there?" said Shinsou.

"No," she said. She got a flashlight and the first aid kit out. They could now hear a commotion outside, and the sounds of people shouting and running.

Misa bound the wound up as well as she could, and then told Shinsou to stand to one side while she washed the blood away.

She had just finished packing everything away when the library door suddenly burst open. She hurriedly phased them through the bathroom wall into the bushes outside.

The bathroom lights came on, and Misa prayed that no one would notice that the floor was wet. The lights went off after a few seconds. She quickly phased her head through the wall to listen.

"Nobody in the library," she heard a voice saying, before a door slid shut.

She turned to Shinsou. "I want to splint your arm. The library should be safe for a while, now. There's no telling what might happen between here and us getting to the camp, and I would prefer your arm to be in a splint if we have to handle anything."

She couldn't see his face because it was dark and he was still hooded, and she thought he was going to argue with her, but after a pause, he reluctantly said, "All right."

They went back into the library, and sat down behind the desk so that they would be hidden if anyone should come in. They sat as near to the wall as they could, so that Misa would be able to phase them out quickly into the bushes outside, if necessary.

Misa had earlier found a fallen branch on the ground near the bushes which looked as if it might make a reasonable splint. She took a towel from the bathroom and cut it into pieces.

As she was working on the splint, she said, "I feel really sorry for Mai Yamada. I wish we could have brought her away with us."

"I couldn't help thinking that too, despite what Aizawa said," admitted Shinsou, "She's just a child. A kid who got caught up in something bigger that she didn't understand."

"It's amazing, she managed to escape the cult leader's mind control," said Misa, "How do you think that happened?"

"I thought it interesting, too," said Shinsou, "The only difference I can see is that she was afraid when he was trying to brainwash her, while the others might not have been. Maybe fear … a very strong fear … might be able to break this fellow's hold."

"Or just a strong emotion," said Misa.

"Possible, too," said Shinsou, "You know – Shibata – the undercover agent whose GPS signal vanished here? He brought his cell phone here. That means he disobeyed the cult's orders, meaning he might have escaped having his mind washed too. Now, Shibata had a very volatile temper. If something the cult leader said had made him angry enough, it might have broken the hold on his mind, too."

There was a pause, and then Misa said, referring to Mai, "I don't think she would have gone back to the bedroom. Do you think we could look for her?"

"We're going to have enough trouble, getting away ourselves," replied Shinsou, "We'll have to hope that she gets away. The guard might have seen her before she ran off, and if they catch her, things aren't going to be very pleasant."

Misa had finished splinting his arm. Now that she'd attended to Shinsou's wounds and they had time to stop and think, she was beginning to realise the enormity of what had happened. They'd been discovered – even worse, caught interviewing someone with recording equipment. She was the one who had been supposed to keep watch. Why hadn't she seen the villains?

"I don't know what happened," she said to Shinsou, "I didn't see or hear anyone coming. Who was that pale woman?"

"I think her name is X-Ray," said Shinsou, "Aizawa mentioned her to me just before we came here, but I forgot to tell you about it. Someone witnessed her carrying out a murder on a Quirkless person, so we were wondering if she was involved with the cult. She can see through solid objects. I had no idea she was here – she must have arrived in the middle of the night. Probably she spotted us in the outhouse from a distance, and got the other villains to sneak up from an angle the surveillance cameras couldn't capture."

"It's all over, then, isn't it," said Misa, her heart sinking, "We've been found out."

"Well, these things happen," said Shinsou philosophically, "it just means that they'll be on heightened alert for a while. But they won't stop their activities just because of us, and we can still continue investigating them. Anyway, they don't know what other tactics we've been using or who else we've interviewed besides Mai Yamada, and I don't think they know her mind is free of the cult leader's influence. I doubt they would consider her someone who could have given us a lot of information."

Even so, Misa felt she had let all of them down. Perhaps she could have monitored the outhouse from different directions, instead of just relying on the surveillance cameras. She should have been more vigilant, especially with so many more villains and cult members present that evening. The past few days' successful interrogations had made her complacent.

And she had simply lain on the floor uselessly while Shinsou had had to fend the villains off on his own! Now he was injured.

Shinsou, however, was continuing.

"I think we'll have to pack our things and leave as soon as we can," he said, "X-Ray can see through solid objects, and if they search the surrounding forest for us, she's sure to spot our camp and the car."

Misa phased them underground, and they began packing everything once they reached their camp. As they quickly loaded everything into the car, Shinsou said, "With my arm like this, you'll have to drive. Take the road to Fukuchiyama."

She started the engine, and the car shot forward. But as they were reaching the road, several figures came running toward them in the dimness of the night.

"No good, that's them, and we've been seen," said Shinsou, "Drive fast, will you? I'm going to move to the back of the car, and get the gun out."

The mountain road was a lonely and winding one. She was driving as fast as she could, but after about ten minutes, she heard Shinsou saying, "I think they're coming after us."

In the rearview mirror, she saw a convoy of cars approaching in the distance.

"If they start shooting at us, phase the car," said Shinsou, "But deactivate your Quirk slightly in my hand and the gun, so that I can shoot back."

He had hardly finished speaking when the sound of several shots whistled through the air. She put the car in phase mode, and the bullets went flying harmlessly through. In her mind's eye, she could feel the entire car and everything in it, just as she had practised, so many times. She tried to feel where Shinsou's arm and the gun was, to deactivate her Quirk there.

"Misa," she heard Shinsou calling, "deactivate your Quirk in my hand, will you?" He had to raise his voice because the wind was whipping through the phased car.

She tried to concentrate, but she found she couldn't do it.

"I'm trying," she said, her heart failing.

She was almost in tears. After a while, she heard him saying, "It's all right, concentrate on driving. So long as you're phasing us, they can't touch us. We just need to get to the city area where we can phase through the traffic, and they won't be able to follow us."

But Misa knew what both of them were thinking : the city was a long way away.

The cult's cars were faster than theirs. One drew up right alongside. Indeed, it came so close that it almost merged with their car. Graveyard was sitting in the front passenger seat, looking at Misa. Although she was still hooded, she felt a chill at the thought that he might be able to see who she was.

His horrible bloated face came near hers, and she saw his hand reaching out as if to grasp her head. If she stopped phasing, he would be able to touch her … her flesh would dissolve, all that would be left were her bones …

Shinsou recognised the driver of the car as one of those who had given a speech during the initiation.

"Kimura!" he shouted, "Hiroji Kimura! I remember you!"

The occupants of the car looked at him.

"Who are you?" shouted Kimura. His face promptly went blank. The car slowed, and turned and went off the road.

"Let the others pull alongside too," Shinsou called out to Misa, "so that I can talk to them."

She began to reduce speed. The other cars, however, had resumed shooting at them. Misa was deactivating her Quirk slightly in the car tyres so that they would be able to grip the road. This made them vulnerable. By chance, some of the villains' bullets went into the right back tyre.

The car skidded. "That's no good," she thought, her heart sinking, "They know where our weak point is now."

The villains were firing at their tyres now. Misa stepped hard on the accelerator. If they get our tyres, we're dead, she thought. She tried one more time to deactivate her Quirk in Shinsou's hand.

To their left, right next to the road, the mountain rose up in an almost vertical cliff face. She recognised this part of the road : a little way forward, it looped sharply and went round the mountain. If she could phase the car through the mountain wall, they might eventually come out onto the road on the other side.

Shinsou suddenly found that he could feel the gun in his hand. He lifted it, and aimed it at the pursuing cars.

Misa heard several loud reports, and she saw one of the cars falling back. But she had already sharply turned the car, and was driving it into the wall of the mountain.

They were surrounded by blackness, and it was difficult to breathe. It was impossible to speak. They went on in the darkness for what seemed an interminably long time, and just when Shinsou was convinced he was going to suffocate, they came out on the other side.

Misa had miscalculated. The road went down the mountain, and when they emerged from the cliff face, they saw it in some distance in front of them, about ten feet below.

The car soared through the air, and as it fell rapidly, she heard Shinsou shouting, "Are you trying to kill us?"

"I'm trying to keep us alive!" she shouted back. A second later, the car made contact with the ground and disappeared beneath the surface, a few metres shy of the road. It sank for what seemed a long time, then gradually rose back up until the top was protruding out of the surface.

Misa stood up, and with an effort, phased the car until it was totally out of the ground, its wheels sitting on the grass verge. She then sat down and, closing her eyes, rested her head on the steering wheel in exhaustion.

"Are you all right?" She could hear the concern in Shinsou's voice.

"I just need half a minute to catch my breath."

But she knew they didn't have half a minute. The cult members were probably still descending the mountain, and they would be coming round the bend and finding them soon.

She heard Shinsou opening the car door. He got out, gun in his good hand, and stood by the car, looking up the road.

"I'm all right now," she said quickly, "Get in, let's go."

She had no sooner started the car and driven onto the road, when she saw them appear in the rearview mirror. She stepped hard on the accelerator.

She put the car in phase mode, and tried to deactivate her Quirk in Shinsou's hand again, but in the mirror she saw him looking at the gun and knew it wasn't working.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she thought despairingly. If she could only make this work, he could probably fend the villains off and they might be able to get away.

She considered their options. On her left was the mountain wall. If the villains continued trying to take out their tyres, she could try driving through again. But she wasn't familiar with this part of the mountain and if it meant going through the heart of it, she didn't know how long they might have to drive inside. If she didn't guide the car straight, and they went around in circles, they would eventually suffocate.

And she didn't know where they would come out. There would probably be no road there. If they came out of the mountainside and plunged into the valley below, there might be a town or some habitation there. If her strength failed and she couldn't control the car, people might be killed.

On her right, the mountain fell away in a sheer face. All she could see was darkness, and she didn't think there were any houses there. The villains would see them going over, but they might think she and Shinsou could not survive the crash.

The villains were shooting at them again. There was a whistling noise, and something exploded near their wheels. She thought she caught the scent of something strange for a moment, and then the car surged forward and it was gone.

But Shinsou was speaking sharply to her. "They're shooting nerve gas at us! Hold your breath!"

Another projectile hit the ground, this time some distance in front of the car.

"Drive faster!" Shinsou shouted.

Instead, she turned the car right, so that it went off the road and headed toward the cliff edge. Projectiles were exploding all around them.

"Faster, faster!" Shinsou barked, "Try not to breathe!"

She stepped as hard as she could on the accelerator. The car shot off the edge of the cliff and soared through the air, then slowly turned into a nosedive. They had a glimpse of a road and fields, far below, before the world seemed to turn upside down. Down, down the car plunged.

Misa suddenly phased through the back of her seat and wrapped her arms tightly around Shinsou. She switched to phasing only herself and him, and, bracing her feet against the seats, pushed with all her might and ejected them through the roof of the car.

The car dropped like a stone away from them, as they continued flying through the air. Shinsou saw the car falling, far below, eventually exploding into a ball of fire as it hit the ground.

Then they were falling toward the ground as well. He could feel Misa holding him tightly, and they no longer seemed to be in phase mode. Her face was buried in his shoulder, and he wondered if she had fainted. Mountain face, trees, leaves and branches seemed to rush past. As the ground hurtled up to meet them, he couldn't help thinking, _this is the end_.

He closed his eyes and braced himself. But they fell through the ground, and continued moving downward in the stifling darkness. Then, after what seemed a long time, he felt that they were moving upward again, and eventually they came out onto the cold surface of the valley floor.

Shinsou opened his eyes. Trees and bare earth surrounded them. Patches of snow lay here and there. The clouds had cleared, and a half moon was out. Stars were visible in the night sky above. He was lying on his back, with Misa on top. She still had her arms tightly wrapped around him. He couldn't see her face, because she had her hood on.

He tried moving. His arm hurt, and she was holding himso tightly it was becoming difficult to breathe.

"Misa," he said.

She stirred slightly, and he saw her eyes flutter open. She lay for a few moments, looking at him.

"You can relax your death grip now," said Shinsou, "it's getting hard for me to breathe."

"Oh. Sorry." She released him and sat up, wearily. "I was just so afraid I might let go of you by accident."

She took her hood off. Her face looked exhausted.

"Sorry about the car," she said, "I just wasn't sure I could keep phasing it. I was getting tired."

He removed his hood as well.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern.

"I think I need to rest a bit," she said, drawing her knees up and resting her head on them. "It's tiring doing so much phasing for so long."

"All right," said Shinsou, "but we'll have to go in a while. They're still after us."

Misa looked at him. He was looking up at the side of the mountain, and she did likewise. Far above, in the darkness, a tiny trail of lights could be seen, moving. A convoy of cars, doggedly making its way down.

Shinsou was looking around.

"There's a road in the distance," he said, "If you could hang on a bit longer, we could try stopping a car. I'll get the driver to take us out of here."

"All right," she said wearily, then stopped and gasped.

"What is it?" he said.

"Everything's gone," said Misa agitatedly, "Everything was in the car – the first aid kit, the phone, the monitoring equipment, our money, the – the recordings!"

"I have the recordings," said Shinsou calmly, pulling them out of his shirt.

"Oh," she said in relief.

"We'll make do without the rest for the time being," he said, tucking the discs back into his shirt, and beginning to make his way to the road.

"Where are you going to tell the driver to go?" asked Misa.

"We'll try getting to the nearest train station," answered Shinsou, "Either I brainwash someone into buying us train tickets, or you can discreetly phase us in past the ticket gantries. Then we'll get onto a train back to Tokyo."

"I think you should go to a hospital and get that arm set, first," said Misa.

"I'm all right," said Shinsou.

She stopped, and in the dim moonlight he saw that she looked angry.

"No, I don't agree," she said firmly, "I'm not stupid. I know you're in pain. I bound you up, and I know that wound is bad. It's going to get infected. We're going to a hospital. This time I put my foot down."

He started to speak, but she shook a finger at him.

"And don't you dare brainwash me, either!" she said fiercely, "I won't forgive you if you do!"

He was looking at her in amusement, but she thought she saw his expression soften.

"All right, you win," he said, "We'll go to a hospital. Happy?"

She looked suspiciously at him.

"But we'll have to hope they don't manage to follow us there," he said, "They'll find the wrecked car, and if there are no bodies, they'll know we got away."

"I don't think they will," said Misa, "the hospital should be quite a distance away."

"They probably know I'm injured," said Shinsou, "The surveillance guard might have seen, and I left a fair bit of blood on the floor of the outhouse. If they're persistent enough, they might search around for the nearest place one can get medical attention."

"Then we'll get you treated and get you out of there as quickly as we can," she said, stubbornly.

They had reached the road. It was a long, straight road, and the cars moving along it were likely to be going fast.

"We'll have to think about how we're going to make ourselves visible if we want to thumb a lift," said Shinsou.

"It's all right, I know what to do," said Misa, "Leave it to me."

They waited. The road remained empty. Shinsou was half thinking that the convoy of cars might make it to the foot of the mountain before any car came along, when he saw headlights in the distance.

Misa had seen them too. She began walking out into the middle of the road.

"What are you doing?" said Shinsou.

"I'm going to stop the car," she said.

She stood, facing the oncoming car.

"Be careful," he said, sharply.

It was a surreal scene. The girl, standing erect in the middle of the empty road. The car, speeding toward her. Shinsou felt himself tense. She was tired … what if her concentration momentarily lapsed? What if she didn't phase in time … he could imagine the car smashing into her …

The car was coming fast. As the beam from its headlights picked her out, she raised one arm in front of her, and held it out as if to stop the car.

It didn't stop in time. Forward it swept, through her body, the driver pressing hard on the car horn. There was a loud screeching of brakes, and the car came to a halt about twenty feet down the road.

The car door opened and the driver got out, spluttering and looking agitated. He was a young man, perhaps in his twenties. Shinsou went forward quickly.

"Sorry to inconvenience you," he said.

"What do you think you're doing – " the man began, and then a blank expression came over his face.

Misa had come over as well.

"Tell us where the nearest hospital is," said Shinsou.

"Fukuchiyama City Medical Centre," said the man.

"Drive us there," ordered Shinsou.

"Get some rest, Misa," he added, as they got into the car.

She nodded. She lay back wearily against the car seat as the car moved off, and was asleep in a few minutes.


	14. Yosano

**14 YOSANO**

Misa was sitting by the window in one of the rooms in Fukuchiyama City Medical Centre, watching as a nurse inserted an IV into Shinsou. They had arrived about four hours earlier, and the doctors had already attended to the wound in his back.

Instead of the slim-fitting black top and pants she had been wearing, Misa was now dressed in an empire-cut blouse and capris tied with a drawstring. They were actually maternity wear. She had discreetly phased into a shop on the medical centre's ground floor and taken the clothes. It was the middle of the night, and the shop was closed. She had not liked doing it, but she had no money to leave in the cash register. She had no choice. Her clothes had Shinsou's blood on them, and the villains had also seen her wearing them. They might recognise her if she was to wear them in public, should she and Shinsou leave the hospital when daybreak came.

While waiting for Shinsou's operation to be over, she had also gone to the lockers where the doctors kept their belongings while they were in the operating theatre, and phased out whatever clothes she could find to have a look. She'd taken Shinsou's discarded clothes to compare the size. There weren't many doctors around because few operations were being carried out at night, but she'd managed to find a shirt and pants that looked as if they might fit.

"The doctor'll just have to wear scrubs home, this once," she thought, putting the clothes into a carrier bag she had taken from the maternity shop.

The precious recordings had also been placed in the bag. She now watched as another doctor set Shinsou's arm. The doctor had a healing Quirk, and told him that the arm should be fine in a few days.

"When can I be discharged?" Shinsou asked the nurse, after the doctor had left.

"The doctor who operated on your back will be along shortly to brief you on your condition, sir," she said, "but you should be here for a while, at least until your fever is gone."

Shinsou grimaced. After the nurse had left, he looked at Misa. "Have you spotted anyone yet?"

Misa hesitated. They were on the third floor, and looking out of the window about half an hour ago, she had actually seen two people whom she thought she recognised as cult members standing outside the hospital. She had gone downstairs, phased herself underground and surfaced cautiously nearer them to double check.

What could the cult do, she wondered. They didn't even know what she and Shinsou looked like, because they had been wearing hoods. They might have recognised them as a man and a woman, though. Had the surveillance guard known that Shinsou's arm was injured? Maybe they were waiting to see if a couple, one with a broken arm, came out of the hospital?

She wasn't sure whether to tell Shinsou yet. She wanted to know whether he was well enough to leave. Maybe she should wait and hear what the doctor had to say before letting him know.

Shinsou, who knew his sidekick rather well by now, saw the expression on her face and promptly started getting out of the hospital bed.

"What are you doing!" said Misa, alarmed, "the drip will come out!"

"It's portable," said Shinsou. He picked up the IV stand and came over to the window. "Someone's there, is that right? Who is it?"

"Two cult members," she said, reluctantly, "They're standing in the shadows under that tree."

"Are you sure it's them?" he asked, peering out.

"Yes," said Misa, "I went to have a closer look. I know their faces, we've been looking at them all evening during the ceremony, after all."

"Well, that's no good," said Shinsou, "They're probably waiting for Graveyard or one of the other villains to arrive. We'd better leave at once."

"I'd rather wait to hear what the doctor has to say – " she began, but he cut her short.

"I had a colleague who got into this situation before," he said, "One of the villains arrived at the hospital, held a gun to the receptionist's head, and demanded to know which patients had arrived during the night. He then managed to find my colleague's room and they had a nice fight. Quite a number of people got injured in the process."

At this moment, the doctor arrived to give them the brief. Shinsou proceeded to brainwash him.

"Remove this drip," he ordered.

Misa watched helplessly as the doctor removed the IV.

"Prescribe me the medicines I'd require if I were to be discharged now," said Shinsou.

"The pharmacy is closed at this hour," said the doctor.

"Well, bring my friend here to the pharmacy," said Shinsou, "Follow all her instructions. She'll get you in and you can give her the medicine."

He remembered something else.

"And give me all the money in your wallet."

The doctor only had 6,000 yen in his wallet. Shinsou scowled.

"It's disgraceful, anyone that rich carrying so little money with him." He turned to Misa. "I'll get more from someone else. You can get the medicine from him first. Bring him back later, he might still come in useful."

"How _ethical_ is this?" she couldn't help asking.

"He gets to live," said Shinsou casually, "He can consider it as contributing to his country's national security."

When she came back, he had managed to get hold of another 30,000 yen. He had also gotten someone at the reception to erase all of his records from the hospital computer system.

"Write a note to the pharmacy," Shinsou ordered the doctor, "mark the medicines as contaminated and discarded for the inventory. Then they won't be missed. Do the same for all the consumables used during my operation."

He tugged at his hospital gown. "I need some clothes."

Misa produced the clothes.

When he had changed, he said, "Let's go, then."

"Where are we going?" asked Misa.

"The train station, of course," said Shinsou.

"But we don't have any disguises left," said Misa, "and we don't know if the spy in the Directorate has tipped anyone in the cult off about us working on this case. I don't know if you're aware of it, but when you're not in disguise, you're quite recognisable, and you also have a significant reputation within the Directorate. If we go out in public undisguised and any cult members notice you with a broken arm, they might guess straight away that it was you in Kamone."

Shinsou looked at her for a few moments, considering.

"We could hide somewhere and then rent a car later," he said.

"You're not well," said Misa, "I'd rather we don't travel till you are. Tokyo is a long way to drive from here. Let's lie low, just for a day or two till your arm is better and your fever's gone. If we need to fight, I'd prefer that you recover first. Let's go to the Yosano apartment."

Shinsou looked thoughtfully at her. Misa seldom disagreed with him, but when it came to his well-being, he suspected that she would be as stubborn as he was.

"All right," he said reluctantly, "but we can't walk out the front entrance with those cultists there. We're going down to the underground car park, and I'll get our long-suffering doctor here to drive us to Yosano."

.

.

They were halfway to Yosano when Misa suddenly realised that Shinsou wasn't well. He had been quiet for a while, but she only noticed something was wrong when she saw him shivering.

She laid a hand on his forehead; it felt as if it was on fire.

Her heart sank. "He shouldn't have gotten out of that hospital bed at all," she thought.

Shinsou only seemed half aware that someone had touched him. "What is it?"

She made herself speak calmly. "Your fever's a bit high, that's all. I'll give you some medicine once we reach the apartment."

He did not reply. He knew he wasn't feeling right, but at the moment all he could think of was that he had to stay conscious long enough for them to reach Yosano and give the doctor the order to return to Fukuchiyama.

After what seemed like a long time to Misa, the doctor stopped the car outside the apartment. Shinsou ordered him off, and she somehow managed to phase them both into the building, up to the fourth floor and into the apartment.

When they entered, her heart sank. Shinsou had been accurate when he had told her that the Directorate had only recently bought the place. There wasn't a stick of furniture present.

Shinsou didn't notice any of that. He was just glad to sink down onto the floor, lean his back against the wall, and gradually lose consciousness.

.

.

When he came to, he saw that it was day, and that he was in a bed. The apartment was dim, but the bed was near the window, and a shaft of sunlight was making a bright patch of light on the wooden floor.

Misa was by the bed, taking his temperature with a thermometer. She had just checked its reading with a relieved expression on her face, when she realised that he was looking at her.

"You're awake," she said softly, "Your fever's finally gone." She looked carefully at him. "Do you know who I am?"

He lay back on the pillows. He was only vaguely aware of the days that had passed, and some memory of her occasionally waking him to force medicine down his throat, and placing cold cloths on him to bring the fever down.

"How long have I been ill?" he asked.

"About a week," she said, "You had me worried."

"A week?" he said, astonished. He looked at her, and then around the apartment, for a minute. Something occurred to him. "How are we doing for money, then?"

"Money?" said Misa, "It ran out on the third day, actually."

"What?" said Shinsou.

"Well, the apartment was completely unfurnished," said Misa, "I had to buy things … towels, toiletries, a thermometer for you, a flashlight and batteries because I didn't want people to see the apartment with lights on. I had to get a kettle and cutlery and some pots and pans for cooking. I didn't want to keep going out to buy meals, or people would soon start recognising me. I had to buy supplies for cooking. And sheets and pillowcases for the bed. Even a garbage bin."

"Well, how have you been managing since the money ran out?" asked Shinsou.

"Oh, I managed," said Misa, looking rather guilty and avoiding his gaze, "I don't really need money to get things, you know."

Shinsou looked at her, and then began to laugh.

"It sounds like you managed very well," he commented. He looked down at the bed. "Unfurnished? What about this bed? Don't tell me you bought that as well!"

"Well, no, actually, I borrowed it," she said, looking even guiltier.

He stared at her.

"Borrowed it?" he said, "What do you mean?"

"I took it from the apartment upstairs," said Misa, "I had a look around the building. That apartment isn't occupied. The furniture is all shrouded in plastic sheets."

"Well, how do you know the occupants won't return?" demanded Shinsou, sitting up, "I think you should return it at once. I can sleep on the floor. We just need a police report to be made, and they might search the building!"

"Lie down," said Misa, automatically. She looked frustrated. "I _knew_ you'd object. How could I let you sleep on the floor? You were so ill!"

"Well, I'm better now," said Shinsou firmly, "and I suggest that you return the bed, immediately!"

An obstinate expression came over her face. She took a pencil and some paper out, and wrote,

NO

Shinsou stared at her. "What are you doing?"

She wrote,

I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU BRAINWASH ME INTO OBEYING YOU

And then added as an afterthought,

YOU DICTATOR

Shinsou looked at her, and then he did something that he hadn't done for a while. He lay back on his pillows, and laughed.

"Are you telling me that with everything else you had to handle, you still took the time to buy pencil and paper so that I wouldn't be able to brainwash you?" he asked, at length.

She gave him a withering look. She wrote,

I KNOW HOW IMPOSSIBLE YOU ARE

He was amused. "Aren't you going to talk to me for the rest of our stay here?"

She wrote,

I'M BUSY. GO BACK TO SLEEP. YOU DICTATOR.

She turned her back on him.

He was still laughing.

"I don't need much sleep," he said. But since he was actually still feeling weak from the fever, he decided to comply. He lay back on the pillows, still feeling amused, and eventually managed to drift off to sleep.

.

.

When he woke later, night had fallen, and the flashlight was lying on the bed, providing some light. Misa was sitting on the floor nearby, and when she saw he was awake, came over.

"I want to check the dressing," she said, making him turn over and lifting his shirt, "Your arm should be all right by now, too."

"I see you're talking to me again," he said.

"The wound really looks much better," she said, ignoring his comment. "I think you'd better eat something, as well."

She lowered his shirt, and he suddenly noticed something. "These aren't that doctor's clothes."

"No, I got you some clothes," she said, "I thought you needed a change."

"But how …" he began, and then stopped.

"I phased them onto you," she said, adding, "I didn't look at anything."

Her voice sounded serious, but he thought that, in the dim light, he saw her trying to suppress a smile before she turned and went off to get him the food.

He decided not to pursue the matter.

"I've managed to contact Aizawa at last," she said, when she had come back. "I used a phone in the apartment downstairs when no one was in. He says we can explain everything later, and that he'll send someone over tomorrow to drive us back."

"All right, that's good," said Shinsou.

He looked at her and smiled. "Well, this was your first assignment, and no matter what else you might want to say about it, it was an eventful one, wasn't it?"

Misa was still feeling rather upset over all the mistakes she felt she had made. Even so, she couldn't help returning his smile.

"Yes," she admitted, "it was."


	15. Akabara Park

**15 AKABARA PARK**

"One wrecked car, brainwashed doctors and nurses, and pilfered goods," said Aizawa, "How am I going to explain all that?"

They were gathered at the picnic grounds in Akabara Park. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, a gentle wind was blowing, and cherry trees were gloriously in full bloom.

"It's mostly Misa's fault," said Shinsou coolly, "I only did the brainwashing, and that was only because she lost all our money."

"Shut up, Shinsou-san," said Misa, laughing.

"It's going to take me a long time to write this report," complained Aizawa. "In the past, Fujiwara was around to smooth things like this over. Make sure the next time the two of you go out in the field, you don't leave another trail of destruction behind."

"Stop talking about work," said Shinsou, "It's a beautiful day, and this is supposed to be a social gathering."

Several other people were coming up behind him.

"Indeed it is a beautiful day! We couldn't have had better weather!" said Kendou exuberantly. She was accompanied by the Twins and Tokoyami. Magnetron opened his side compartment, and Misa saw him taking his gadget bag out.

Three people who were walking past turned around at the sound of Kendou's voice. One was a tall man with black spiky hair and glasses, one of medium height with wavy greenish hair, while the third, a woman, was small and pretty, with brown hair framing her face.

"Look, it's Kendou!" said the green-haired man, "and Shinsou, Tokoyami, and Aizawa-sensei!"

Shinsou did not seem that enamoured to see them. He nodded rather coolly. "Ex-UA," he said to Misa, "Tenya Iida, Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka."

Kendou was smiling from ear to ear, pleased to see them. "We're having a company outing," she announced, "Are you three here to view the sakura too?"

"Oh, are these your ex-schoolmates?" said Misa, "They look familiar … weren't they in the Sports Festival too?" Introductions were made, and she said, "Would you like to join us? There's more than enough food for everybody."

"We're having a boat race later!" said Kendou, "Come join in the fun!"

"Ooh, yes, yes, let's stay!" squeaked Ochako, appealing to the other two men.

Shinsou was looking bored. "I'm going off to get Ayumi," he said to Misa, "She's supposed to meet me at the gate. I'll be back soon." He strode off.

.

.

By the time he returned with Ayumi, Misa was trying to get the first boat race going.

"All those who'd like to take part, please put your names in the bag, and we'll draw lots," she said, handing a bag around, "I'm so sorry we have only three boats per race. The rest will have to stay along the banks and cheer."

"Arakawa-san, put your name in as well," said Aizawa, "You should have some enjoyment, after organizing all this. I'll keep an eye on things."

When the lots were drawn, the teams for the first race were as follows:

Team A (Boat 1) : Izuku Midoriya, Klystron, Radon, Noriyuki

Team B (Boat 2) : Tenya Iida, Ochako Uraraka, Iridium, Magnetron

Team C (Boat 3) : Mirio Togata, Itsuka Kendou, Misa Arakawa, Fumikage Tokoyami

"All right, now these are the rules," said Misa to the assembled team members, "The boats all have outboard motors, but you can use your Quirks to enhance your boat speed. However, no attacking any of the teams in the other boats with your Quirks."

"What about muscle power?" said Iridium, flexing her muscles.

"To add power to your boat, yes. To attack the other teams, no," said Misa firmly.

The teams went over to their boats to get ready.

"Well, well, well!" said Mirio, "It looks as if I'm the weakest one here! My Quirk is not suited to propelling boats!"

"You can get us organised, Togata-senpai," said Misa, "You can do the steering."

"We're heavily outclassed," said Kendou, looking at the other boats. "Midoriya alone can provide enough power to allow his team to win. And Iida has his engines. Uraraka will make her boat weightless, and the Oersted Twins can channel the Earth's magnetic field lines."

"Now, now, enough of such talk!" exclaimed Mirio, "The important thing is that we must keep our spirits up! Now, Tokoyami-kun, if you could get Dark Shadow to pull the boat forward from the front, using this rope."

Tokoyami nodded. "The sun is extremely bright, however," he said quietly, "I'm sorry, but Dark Shadow will not be able to provide as much power as I wish he could."

"Don't worry about it!" said Mirio, "We'll all do our best! Kendou-san, you sit in the rear and with your giant hands, see if you can give us extra propulsion."

"I'll try my best," said Kendou, settling herself at the back.

"Finally, Arakawa-san, if you would sit in front," said Mirio, "and put the river water in front of the boat into phase mode, so that we can cut forward faster."

"OK," said Misa, making her way to the front.

The boats were ready. Professor Hadron gave the signal, using a large, golden gun.

"That's a cool-looking gun!" said Midoriya.

Klystron sighed. "It is one of Magnetron's toys," she said, in her piping voice.

"Ready?" squeaked Professor Hadron, "Get set everyone! On your marks, get set, GO!"

He pulled the trigger, and the gun exploded loudly, giving off a spray of brightly-coloured fireworks.

The boats were off. Midoriya's boat shot ahead at once. He was at the rear of his boat, with his hand lowered into the river, punching his power into the water.

Iida was also standing at the rear of his boat, his engines roaring. "I must be careful not to let any water get into them," he thought.

Team C's boat was also surging forward, but at a comparatively slower pace compared to the other two boats.

"Come on, come on, Team C!" shouted Mirio, "Let's keep at it!"

The boats skimmed along the surface of the river. Besides the members of the Directorate, other park users were scattered at various points along the banks of the river, watching and clapping.

"We're falling further and further behind," Misa thought. But she did not say it out loud, not wanting to dampen her team's spirits.

The other two boats had already gone out of sight. At one point, the river looped sharply, making almost a U-shaped bend. Misa, glancing to her right, saw Iida's boat in the distance cruising swiftly along the river in the opposite direction.

"Mirio-senpai, please turn and aim straight for the bank," she said, "Tokoyami-san, Kendou-san, could we continue with this speed or even faster. I think we might as well take a short-cut. I'm going to phase us through to the other side."

"Are you sure that's allowed?" asked Mirio, looking worried.

"It doesn't matter," said Kendou, "We're already losing so spectacularly that it doesn't make any difference!"

The boat ploughed smoothly into the bank, sped along through the ground for about 20 yards, and then re-entered the river.

"The river makes another such loop further down," said Misa, "I think we might as well cut across that as well."

"Admirable," said Tokoyami quietly, "That just saved us about two miles of river."

.

.

Shinsou and Ayumi were seated, together with the other Directorate staff, about half a mile upstream from the finish line. As Team A's boat came into view, Shinsou suddenly leapt to his feet.

"PLUS ULTRA!" he bellowed at the boat, "PLUS ULTRA! PLUS ULTRA!"

The Team A members beamed at him as they passed and responded in a chorus, "PLUS ULTRA!" Immediately, glazed expressions came over their faces. The boat slowed down, swivelled around in the water and came to a stop against the far bank, its engine still running.

"Hitoshi-kun, what are you doing!" exclaimed Ayumi.

Shinsou was leaning back in his seat, arms folded, smiling unpleasantly.

The spectators nearby were all craning their heads to see what had happened.

"Cripes! What's happened to the boat? It's foundering in the water!"

"It had an incredible lead and now that's going to go!"

Team B's boat came flying along half a minute later, and Ochako pulled at Iida's sleeve.

"Iida-kun, look! What's happened to Deku's boat?!" The words were no sooner out of her mouth than Iida's engines suddenly spluttered and died. He tried in vain to restart them.

"I don't understand it," he said, trying to revive his engines, "It's as if I can't activate my Quirk."

Magnetron was still manfully continuing to channel his magnetic field lines. Team B's boat continued to power on, but at a slower pace. Eventually, it passed Team A's boat.

"What on earth is happening?" asked Iridium, who was steering.

"It is Shinsou-sama and Aizawa-sama," chirped Magnetron, "They are helping Arakawa-sama's team because she organised this event for them."

Iridium shook her fist at the spectators on the shore.

"Offside!" she shouted, "Foul! Unsporting!"

A minute later, Team C's boat came hurtling along.

"Is that not Midoriya's boat?" said Tokoyami, in his quiet voice, "What's happened to them?"

"Hurry, hurry, let's get ahead before they recover!" cried Kendou excitedly. As they swept past, the wake from their boat caused Team A's boat to bump against the shore, and Midoriya woke from his trance. Realising the situation, he hurriedly roused the others.

"Quick, let's get back into the centre of the river!" He lowered his hand in the water, channelling as much power as he could. The boat shot forward.

In half a minute, it had caught up with the other two boats. As the spectators near the finish line cheered, Team A's boat surged forward and passed the finish line just before Team B's, with Team C coming in a few metres behind.

.

.

"How could you do that?" said Misa reproachfully. She had just discovered what her group mates had done during the race, and was now confronting them across one of the picnic tables.

"It was perfectly legitimate," said Aizawa, mildly. "The rules were that team members cannot use their Quirks to attack those in the other boats. It says nothing about those on the shore."

Misa was staring at him, wide-eyed.

"It's _understood_ ," she said. "It's scandalous … we can't treat guests this way!"

"They're not guests," said Shinsou, "They're colleagues."

"Midoriya and his friends are guests," Misa said.

"I didn't invite them," said Shinsou.

She glared at him.

"Arakawa-san, it's all right, don't scold them," said Midoriya, grinning. He had been standing nearby, listening, "We still won, after all."

"That's right, what are you complaining about," said Shinsou, "We just helped you lose a little less badly, that's all."

"It's completely rational," said Aizawa, "This is a social outing, not a Sports Festival. It's bad for morale if a team loses too badly, especially to the degree that yours was going to."

Misa stared at the both of them, speechless.

"The two of you are impossible!" she exclaimed. "Here," she handed them a pile of paper plates each, "You can make up for it by seeing that the guests get their food."

.

.

"Ayumi, why are you sitting here?" said Shinsou, "The reserved tables are over there."

"I didn't think there would be so many people," said Ayumi, "It makes me feel claustrophobic. I think I'll sit here a while."

"You can't, I'm supposed to be one of the organisers here, I can't sit here miles from the others while the rest of my group does all the work!" said Shinsou, impatiently.

Misa had come up with a few plates of food.

"Ayumi-san, wouldn't you like to join us, over there?" she said, "I'll introduce you to the rest of our colleagues."

"Hitoshi-kun, you go and talk to your colleagues," said Ayumi, "I'll sit here a while. Misa can sit with me, and point people out to me."

"She can't sit with you, she's running around, organising things!" said Shinsou, exasperated. "At least, come and sit with the others!"

This is going rapidly downhill, Misa thought.

"There's nothing much to do at the moment, everyone's got their food," she said to Shinsou, "I can talk to Ayumi for a while."

Ayumi waited until Shinsou, still looking baffled at her behaviour, had left, then put her hand on Misa's arm.

"Who's that girl over there with the red hair?" she asked, sounding slightly agitated, "The one Hitoshi is talking to?"

Misa was startled.

"Red-haired girl?" she said, turning to look, "Oh, that's Itsuka Kendou. She's very clever, and she works in the Data Analysis Division."

"She's very pretty," said Ayumi, "Does … does Hitoshi know her well? Is he close to her?"

Misa looked at her in amazement.

"They're not working in the same section," she replied, "But they know each other. They were from the same year in Yuuei, if I'm not mistaken."

"I think he's seeing someone else," confessed Ayumi miserably, "A friend of mine saw him talking intimately for hours with this girl in a private corner of a restaurant. And someone saw him bringing a girl to his apartment, too."

Misa was horrified.

"Ayumi, please, your fears are unfounded," she said, "You must be mistaken. I work in the same Division as Shinsou, and I have never seen him being close in that manner to any of the other women in the Directorate. In fact, he mentions you often, and he has your photos in his wallet and phone. He's committed to you."

"He doesn't behave like he is!" said Ayumi, petulantly. "Every time I ask him about work, he says it's confidential. Last month, he went off for weeks, and when he came back he was wounded in his arm and back. I asked him what happened and he wouldn't tell me. Such a major thing, and he can't tell me, his girlfriend, who's closest to him!"

Misa was astonished. She understood Shinsou to be a private person, and she could imagine his wrath if he found out his girlfriend was spilling their private affairs to a stranger.

"That's why I want to sit here at a distance, where I can watch him," said Ayumi determinedly, "I'm going to see which girls he's talking to."

Misa glanced at the tables where the others were. Magnetron had brought his Ray guns, and she saw a number of people playing with them, trying to shoot down flying targets.

Ayumi was also peering at the crowd. "Who's that brown-haired girl walking toward us? She's pretty too."

"That's Ochako Uraraka," said Misa, "She doesn't even work in the Directorate."

Ochako had come up to their table, with Midoriya and Iida behind her.

"Misa-chan, some of the others are asking if there are any bowls for the dessert," she said, cheerfully.

"Oh!" said Misa. She stood up, but then hesitated. She could hardly just go off and leave Ayumi alone.

"We'll stay and keep your friend company," said Midoriya helpfully, "You were from Yuuei too, weren't you?" he said to Ayumi, "I remember you were doing General Studies."

Iida marched around the table, arms swinging, and formally introduced himself. "Tenya Iida," he announced, "I was from Yuuei too, I'm currently working with my family's hero agency."

Misa was watching in dismay. She could tell Shinsou didn't really like Midoriya and his friends, and if he were to come back and find his girlfriend complaining to them about him, he might have an apoplectic fit.

"I'll get those bowls out fast, then come back and somehow get them away from her," she thought.

When she returned, she was carrying a bowl of dessert for Ayumi, who was talking animatedly.

"It's so hard. Why can't he work in a normal hero agency? It's true the average salaryman in Japan spends all his time at work and very little time with his family. But even he can take time off and get married and have a family, and go for holidays. He wanted to be a hero. Why can't he join a normal hero agency?"

"Oh, but you know, Shinsou's Quirk is special," said Midoriya, "It would be wasted in a normal hero agency. The Directorate is where it can be put to its greatest use."

Ochako was nodding vigorously in agreement. Iida cleared his throat, and adjusted his glasses.

"The Tokyo Intelligence Directorate is one of our most significant law enforcement institutions," he said, gazing fixedly at Ayumi, "but because much of their work is done in secrecy they often do not receive the honour and glory that normal heroes do. That makes their work none the less important. You can be proud Shinsou is doing such vital work and contributing to national security in his own way …"

Ayumi, however, was not listening. She spotted Misa, and said, "What do you think, Misa-chan? If he loves me, he should be willing to change his job so that we have more time together!"

Misa had been going to pretend that she needed help moving some of the tables and get at least Midoriya and Iida away, but now all four of them were looking expectantly at her to see her response.

Her heart sank. She sat down on the bench in front of Ayumi, and tried to think of what to say.

"Ayumi-san," she said at last, trying to choose her words carefully, "If you love Shinsou, perhaps you might not want to stop him from following where his heart wants to go. You've known him a long time. He's had to work harder than others to achieve his dream of being a hero, and because in the past he's often been misjudged and misunderstood due to the nature of his Quirk, it's something that strikes a very deep chord in him."

But Ayumi was now looking at someone else. "Oh, _you're_ here," she said.

Misa turned to see Shinsou.

"Why is nobody on my side?" exclaimed Ayumi, beginning to cry, "Do you know how miserable I am? And you," – she gesticulated at Misa, "how can you talk like that? Do you know him so well? Oh, I know … it must be _you_ … _you_ must be the one he's getting involved with – "

She picked up the bowl of dessert, and threw it at Misa, who instinctively phased so that it passed through her, and hit Iida instead, knocking his glasses off and covering him with syrup.

"Ayumi!" said Shinsou, shocked.

She was becoming hysterical.

"You always – " she started saying to him, and then her face went blank.

Shinsou felt a sense of despair. He had promised himself that he would never brainwash her, especially in public like this. How did we get to this stage, he asked himself, how am I responsible for this lost Ayumi?"

"Come with me," he said to her, "We need to talk." He strode off, and she followed obediently, still blank-faced.

Misa watched as they went off, a worried expression on her face.

"Let it be," A voice said in her ear.

She turned around to see Aizawa.

"He's a grown adult," said Aizawa, "Don't worry about him. He can handle his own affairs."

Her face was troubled as she glanced back again at the direction in which Shinsou and Ayumi had disappeared.

"Yes," she said, "but he is my sidekick, after all. I have to look out for him."

She turned to Iida, and picking up a napkin, began helping Ochako wipe syrup off him.

.

.

It was dark by the time the tables had been cleared and everyone had gone home. Misa was seated on one of the picnic benches, looking at the sakura blooms in the nearby trees glowing in the light of the park lamps. The wind blew, and she pulled her jacket closer around her. It was spring, and the nights were still chilly.

She liked to hear the sound of the wind. It was a spring breeze, she thought, the sound of hope and new life, and the promise of the summer to come.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind her, she turned, expecting to see the caterer. But to her surprise, it was Shinsou.

"I'm sorry I left early," he said, "Everyone's gone back, I see."

"Yes," Misa said, "Don't worry, there wasn't much to do toward the end. I'm just waiting now for the caterer to come and collect the trays."

Shinsou sat down on the bench opposite her. "You should have let Aizawa do it."

"He offered," said Misa, "But I told him to go home."

She looked at him. "You don't have to stay, Shinsou-san. I can wait, and there's no point having two people waiting here."

"It's all right, I'll wait with you," he said.

He lapsed into silence, his expression rather grim. Misa remained quiet as well. She didn't dare ask about Ayumi.

The caterer finally came, and when the trays were gone, she said, "That's it for today, I guess. Let's go back."

"I plan to stay a bit longer and walk for a while in the park," he said, "Keep me company?"

Misa was surprised, but nodded. She wondered why he wasn't spending the time working things out with Ayumi instead.

"Maybe the worst has happened," she thought forebodingly, as they set off down the path.

She glanced at Shinsou. She had committed herself to their partnership, but she sometimes wondered what he thought of her. She was aware that he treated her much more kindly than he did many people, but she assumed that this was because she was his sidekick, and also because he knew about her past and felt sorry for her. However, she now realised that Shinsou must be hurting, and that he – usually proud, cold, aloof, and self-sufficient – had thought of her first, his sidekick, to turn to when he wanted comfort.

This touched her to the quick. "He must be feeling pretty bad, to come to me," she reflected. "But what can I say to make him feel better? I hardly know anything about relationships."

Shinsou, glancing at Misa walking quietly next to him, her eyes watchful and concerned, felt a wave of affection for her. She had proven herself to be a loyal and trustworthy sidekick, and she had saved their lives more than once during their first assignment.

Since the incident with Mirio, he had realised that she had committed herself to him, for some reason. Why, he wasn't sure, but he guessed that she had needed someone to fill the void that Hideo had left behind, and that since she had no remaining family, her sidekick had been the closest person she could devote herself to.

"She must be tired, after today's events," he thought. "I should let her go home and rest, but ..."

Aloud, he said, "Thanks for speaking up for me today."

Misa wasn't sure what he was referring to, at first.

"Speaking – ? Oh, that," she said, "I didn't realise that you were there."

"I haven't actually spoken to that many people about how I used to feel about my Quirk," he remarked.

She heard the question in that sentence.

"I didn't tell you," she said, not looking at him, "but when you had that fever in Yosano, you were delirious. You talked about it."

Shinsou seemed surprised. "I thought it was something I'd gotten over long ago."

They stopped near a bend in the river, and stood in the shadow of the cherry trees. Shinsou was silent for a while, looking out at the slow-flowing water.

"I'm selfish, aren't I," he said at length, "I should give up the job for her. I can see her point. My work hardly leaves us time for anything worth calling a relationship."

Misa thought she had better tell him.

"Shinsou?" she said, "I thought I should mention this … someone saw us having that discussion at Miyajima, the other time … and told Ayumi … and I think she misunderstood."

He didn't seem too concerned.

"Did she," he said, looking at Misa, "We didn't think of that when we were planning to meet outside, did we?"

She shook her head.

Shinsou turned to look out again at the river.

"It doesn't make any difference now," he said, after a few minutes.

He paused.

"I realised it this evening," he said, "I could quit my job, give it all up for her, get a job elsewhere, spend more time with her … but it wouldn't make any difference in the end. It wouldn't save our relationship. We've both changed too much … we've gone in different directions for too long. We don't speak the same language any more."

He was silent for a while, before continuing.

"But it's difficult," he said, and Misa could hear the regret in his voice, "She's waited a long time for me. She's put her future and all her hopes on me."

He turned to Misa, and she could see the pain in his eyes. "Hold me a while, will you?"

She came forward, put her arms around him, and held him tight.

"I'm here," she said quietly, "It's all right. Hold on to me."

As she held him, she felt the wind suddenly rise again around them, but it was no longer a herald of hope. It moved through the sakura like some harbinger of doom, rushing up among the slender stems, shaking the blossoms down and tearing the fragile life from them.

The voice of the wind rose to a crescendo, sighing as if alive, crying out as if in sorrow and loss. It then fell to a murmur, moving with a whisper through the shadowy boughs, its energy spent, and with a sigh was lost among the branches.


	16. Bending The Bloodhound

**16 BENDING THE BLOODHOUND**

Shinsou never mentioned Ayumi again after that evening in the park, and Misa never asked him about her. She noticed after a while, though, that Ayumi's picture had vanished from his wallet, and that there also seemed to be a slight bitterness about him. She wanted to comfort him, but there was nothing she could do, and so she focused on her training and on making their next assignment a success.

Aizawa had told her that the next assignment would not be for a while, because the cult would probably be on heightened alert now that their premises had been violated. She and Shinsou would wait until things had died down and the cult was no longer on its guard. He had sent out scouts to look for the Ematsu house, and to monitor it for several months. He told her to continue with her combat and Quirk control training, and to focus on the areas where she felt she was weak.

"You can work on your mental strength as well," he said, "It might help you defend yourself from villains with Quirks you're vulnerable to, like Carousel. Shinsou was able to fend the vertigo off better because his Quirk has made him mentally stronger."

Misa had not enjoyed being reminded about the first assignment. She still felt that she had let Group Sigma down. She also remembered the way that Shinsou had fought off Carousel and the other villains, and was keenly aware that her own combat skills were still poor.

She had been given instruction on using a range of weapons now, but had yet to settle on one that she wanted to specialise in. She wanted a small weapon, because a large one would make her stealth work cumbersome. At the moment she was using a tanto, which was a smaller blade than the usual katana. She was still continuing her sparring sessions with Shinsou, but as the months went by, she felt she wasn't improving. In fact, she seemed to be getting worse.

Shinsou, too, began to notice that his sidekick seemed to be going through some sort of minor crisis.

"Is something wrong?" he finally asked, during one sparring session where they were fighting with their weapons of choice, "We were looking at your Quirk control the other day with Radon at the Simulation Centre, and he commented that you had more control a few months ago. And the same can be said of your sparring."

Misa flushed. She felt a lot of pressure over her Quirk control whenever she remembered how he had been unable to use the gun in the car during the chase. But the harder she tried, the worse her concentration became. Her performance deteriorated even more whenever Shinsou appeared at the Simulation Centre to see how she and Radon were progressing.

"You're not giving it your all," Shinsou now observed, referring to her sparring, "You keep holding back. Why? Come at me with all you've got!"

"I am," she said, reddening, "You're just too fast for me."

He seemed to be thinking.

"Listen," he said, "I brainwashed you at the Simulation Centre the other day, and you managed to control your Quirk perfectly. You seem to be having some sort of mental block when you're conscious. Let me brainwash you now. I'm going to tell you to come at me with everything you have, and let's see how you do then."

Misa was not keen about being brainwashed again, but she agreed. The last thing she recalled was her mind descending into a fog after she had responded to him. The next she knew, she found herself seated on top of him, one hand around his throat, pinning him down, and the other raising the tanto high, about to stab him. His whip lay to one side with two of the thongs cut off.

Shinsou was looking up at her approvingly. "That was _much_ better."

She was stunned. She moved to one side, sliding off him, so that he could sit up.

She looked suspiciously at him. Is he fooling me, she wondered. He's quite devious sometimes. Maybe he let me win in order to give me confidence.

He was looking at her. "I told you, you keep holding back. Why?"

"I don't know," she said awkwardly.

"Maybe there's something subconsciously bothering you that you're not even aware of," he said, "If you want –"

"No, don't!" she cried, panicking suddenly, "Please don't brainwash me about that!"

She saw the hurt in his eyes.

"I won't, if you don't want me to," he said, quietly.

She looked at him, and suddenly realised how lonely it must be to possess a Quirk like his, where no one trusted you, perhaps not even those close and dear.

"I know you wouldn't," she said, shamefaced.

Maybe I should just tell him, she thought.

"I don't know what's wrong with my sparring," she said, looking down at the tanto in her hands, "Lately, I just keep thinking that I'm afraid I'll hurt you."

Shinsou looked at her in disbelief. "Hurt me?"

She looked embarrassed. "I keep thinking that," she said, "I – I just don't think that I could ever bring myself to do anything that would hurt you."

"Misa!" Shinsou looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or not. "This is combat! You're _supposed_ to try to hurt me!"

She has a powerful Quirk, he thought, and she performed well during our first assignment, but sometimes I think she's just too kind-hearted for this sort of business.

Aloud, he said, "You're supposed to be trying to kill or at least defeat and subdue me! Why? Is it because I'm your sidekick? You won't survive long if you get personal or emotional when you're fighting. Tell yourself I might become evil, or that I might one day find another sidekick other than you!"

She knew that he was joking, but she didn't smile. She gave a small sigh, and sheathed the tanto.

"It wouldn't make any difference," she said, almost as if she was talking to herself, "Even if you became evil, or left me for another … it wouldn't change the way I feel."

She went over to the whip and picked it up, examining the broken thongs.

"Let the whip be," said Shinsou, going over to her, "I have a couple more. I tell you what, we can take a break for a while. It's no good to keep sparring with the same person anyway. I'll arrange for you to do it with a few others, including Aizawa."

"OK," said Misa, gloomily.

"You need some time off," he said, "You keep working nonstop. I haven't seen you take a day's leave since you started working here. Go take a couple of days off, do some shopping or something. You're putting too much pressure on yourself. Don't continue doing that, or it'll only get worse. I'm not going to pressure you. Don't worry about the Quirk control in the car, or the sparring. We'll manage just fine if you can just phase people."

His words didn't cheer her up. "He's just being nice," she thought, as she left the training hall, "Both him and Aizawa. The fact is, they happen to need my particular Quirk, and so they have no choice. They're stuck with me, no matter how incompetent I am."  
.

.

She did take a few days off, and went walking around Tokyo, but then got to thinking about improving her mental strength, as Aizawa had mentioned. How does one do that, she wondered.

She had one sleepless night thinking about it. A Group Sigma meeting had been scheduled for the next day, and she found herself nodding off while she and Shinsou were waiting for Aizawa to arrive.

"I'm so sleepy," she thought, "so much for mental resilience."

"Didn't you just take a few days off?" asked Shinsou, "You're looking tired. I hope you've been trying to relax, mentally."

"Well, it's hard," said Misa, trying to stay awake, "I don't think I can afford to slack on the training. I just keep worrying that for the next assignment I'll bungle everything again the way I did for the first one. We failed there, because of me."

Shinsou stared at her. "What?"

"I've been wanting to apologise to you, actually," she said, "If I had kept watch properly in Kamone, we might not have been discovered at all, and you wouldn't have been injured. But I just lay there on the floor like an idiot, unable to move, while you did all the fighting. And later in the car … my phasing just wasn't good enough. You couldn't use the gun. If you had been able to, we might have escaped with everything intact, and not lost the car."

Shinsou came over and stood in front of her, an incredulous expression on his face.

"Is that what your mental block has been about all these months?" he exclaimed, "I can't believe you're saying all this to me!"

She opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her short.

"You've been blaming yourself all this time for not keeping watch? If you had been daydreaming, there might be some fault. But you were vigilant all the while. None of us would have guessed that X-Ray had come. Things would have turned out the same if it had been me on watch.

"You're blaming yourself for not phasing well enough? Do you think you could have tried any harder? You were training day in, day out. Quirk development takes time. In fact, we didn't even know whether it would be possible for you to indirectly phase objects to that extent. It wasn't because of your want of effort.

"You consider the assignment a failure? We managed to interview Citadel and observe the underground cavern. We managed to interview the recruits and got important information out of Graveyard. We even got a description of the cult leader from Mai Yamada and some hint that his power can be overcome. We have leads now whereas we were in a deadlock for months before you came!"

He was looking seriously at her.

"This was only your first assignment. I've been on dozens … some turn out fruitless. Some turn out disasters, where people die and there's nothing to show for it. Things very seldom go according to plan. What's important is that when things go wrong, you can think and move fast enough to carry out damage control and figure a way out. You saved our lives back there on the mountain. If you hadn't phased the car through the mountain, the villains would have shot our wheels to pieces. If you hadn't phased us when the car went over, we would have died.

"You managed to stop that car on the highway so that we could get to the hospital. You took care of us while I was lying in bed with fever like an incapacitated fool. We're back here now, none the worse for it, with new leads, planning our next move. And you call that a failure?"

Misa was wide awake by now. She looked as if she was trying to fend off the barrage of words being thrown at her. "Well, I – I –"

"You know what the problem is with you?" said Shinsou slowly, "You don't know your own worth. If Aizawa or I praise your progress, you smile, but you don't really believe it. All you can see is what you think you're lacking in. That's why you're there, killing yourself, training day and night.

"You've got an extraordinarily powerful Quirk, one which a lot of people would die for, including myself, but you can't see it. Aizawa and I had to search the whole of Japan to find you, but you don't realise the significance of that. All you can see is what you think is lacking in your ability to control your Quirk, and you train for hours, trying to develop it. In fact, sometimes I think you wish you didn't have the Quirk. Then that bastard fool that you call your father wouldn't have adopted you, and you might have led a normal life!"

Misa flushed. "If I train hard, it's because I don't want to let you and Aizawa down!"

"Well, you don't!" said Shinsou, becoming angry. "In fact, we're in your debt, but you don't seem to realize it! You don't even understand the concept of getting recognition for anything! That fool has robbed you of your self-worth. To you, recognition is something other people get, but not you. You can't imagine how frustrating it is to keep watching someone so resourceful and talented think so lowly of herself!"

He stopped, because she had stood up, trembling, and was looking at him in total bewilderment.

"I hadn't realised you had analysed me so thoroughly," she stammered, "Calm down. I just wanted to apologize. You can't think how difficult it was, watching you lying there for days delirious with fever, and thinking I could have prevented it. Don't be angry."

Shinsou was taken aback. He opened his mouth to reply, but at this moment the door opened, and Aizawa came in.

"Sorry to be late," he said, moving briskly forward to the table. "We can start now."

They took their seats, the argument unresolved. Shinsou was frowning. Misa was looking upset, staring at the table, her brow slightly furrowed.

"I wanted to apologize but got a lecture instead," she thought gloomily, "Am I really that negative? Probably I can't see it myself. I thought I'd actually improved since coming here. I've had a more normal life here than I've had anywhere else. It's not true that it means nothing to me when they give me praise …"

Aizawa started the discussion. "All right. First, we want to look at the preliminary preparations for your next assignment and what we have to work on. Now, what code are we going to use? What about Tokyo Tower?"

Misa managed to drag her attention back to the room. She nodded.

"All right with me," said Shinsou.

"OK," said Aizawa, "Anything the two of you want to bring up?"

Shinsou's mind was still on Misa, but he managed to pull himself together.

"Yes," he said, "I did mention this to you before. It looked to me during the car chase that the Hikari group was prepared for our coming. They knew we have someone who can phase. The fact that they had nerve gas on hand … nerve gas wouldn't have been so effective on a normal car where the windows are wound up. But it was suited to a car in phase where it could affect the breathing of the people inside."

"So … you think our unknown spy in the Directorate suspected our group and tipped them off," said Aizawa.

"They may not have been completely sure," said Shinsou, frowning, "They tried to shoot us first, and then later brought out the gas. I don't know if it was because they normally try shooting gas into normal cars anyway, or they actually knew the car was vulnerable to it while phasing."

"Hm," said Aizawa.

"Anyway," continued Shinsou, "they now know we have this phasing ability. They saw us phase into the mountain, and I would expect that in any future conflict they would probably have some plan to counter us. Also, in a fight they might target Misa first, if the spy has tipped them off about what she looks like and they get her hood off and recognise her. They know that if they cripple her, that could cripple our escape. I think we should be mentally prepared for that."

Aizawa seemed to be thinking.

"If Arakawa was injured, but still able to phase minimally," he said, "Do you think you would be able to get the both of you out?"

"Unlikely," said Shinsou, "You either have the Quirk or you don't. There's no way I can activate and deactivate the Quirk in different parts of our bodies the way she can."

"Arakawa-san," said Aizawa, "What do you think?"

Misa jumped. She had been staring at Tamako the cat, but her mind had been miles away.

"I – I'm sorry," she stammered, "I just lost track of the conversation. My mind somehow drifted. What did you say?"

Shinsou looked at her confused face, and felt a stab of regret.

"She's thinking about all the drivel I was spewing just now," he thought, "Maybe I should have gone easier on her. I suppose I came on too strong. Why on earth did I get so worked up? Have I been over-analysing her? I hadn't even realised it. She must think it so odd. To be fair, she isn't as bad as I made her out to be. She's actually been quite stable, never once did she let her trauma over her brother get in the way of her work. Maybe some of the things I said weren't justified. I can hardly blame her for feeling bewildered – "

"Shinsou, are you with us?" said Aizawa.

Shinsou came back with a start.

"Sorry," he said, "My mind just wandered for a moment."

Aizawa was beginning to look irritated. "What's the matter with the two of you today?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Shinsou, "I'm totally present now. What was the question?"

"Arakawa thinks it might be possible you can take control enough to get yourselves out if she's able to phase minimally," said Aizawa, still looking annoyed, "She says she sometimes feels as if you're doing a bit of the controlling. I propose we give it a try."

Misa seemed to have recovered somewhat. She got up, and indicated that Shinsou should stand next to her. "Let's see if we can make it across the table."

She absent-mindedly slipped her hand into his. Shinsou was startled. She nearly always grasped him by the arm above his elbow when she was phasing them. He guessed that she was still feeling distracted.

Her hand was quite pleasant to hold, he thought. It felt soft and smooth. He twined his fingers around hers, and waited to see her reaction.

Misa, feeling the pressure of his hand, glanced down. Her eyes widened in dismay when she realised what she had done.

She looked at Shinsou. He gave her a small smile, and squeezed her hand. She instinctively knew he was apologizing for scolding her earlier.

To her chagrin, she felt a blush creeping into her cheeks. She wanted to withdraw her hand, but he was holding it tightly. She could have phased her hand out, but realised it would look rude.

"What on earth was I doing," she thought ruefully, "I don't seem to be in my proper sphere today at all. Well, at least, he doesn't seem to mind."

She didn't want to admit it, but she didn't mind either. His hand felt strong and warm.

Aizawa was becoming impatient. "Are you getting started?"

"Yes, yes," she said, flustered. She began phasing them into the table.

"Stop," said Aizawa, "You're supposed to phase minimally, and Shinsou is supposed to pull the both of you through the table."

Misa retreated back out, red-faced, and they started again.

"It's not working," said Shinsou, "I can feel it, she's still deactivating the Quirk in our feet."

Misa stopped. "It's a bit hard to imagine being injured and being only able to phase minimally," she said, apologetically.

"Well, simulate it better, then," said Aizawa, "Pretend you're injured and that he has to carry you. Climb onto his back and close your eyes and concentrate."

Shinsou was beginning to lose patience.

"I'm telling you this won't work," he said, "We're wasting time!"

Aizawa seemed undeterred.

"She seems to think you can do it," he said, "We'll just try it for a while, to confirm it. If it actually works, it might be a considerable advantage to you. And I would imagine you would have to spend a fair bit of time practising, to get it under control. So it would be better find out earlier rather than later."

Shinsou scowled, but he bent down, and let Misa clamber onto his back. He had to admit, though, that he didn't mind feeling her put her arms around him.

Aloud, he said severely, "You weigh a ton. You had better go on a diet, or I won't be able to carry you!"

She couldn't help laughing. To get back at him, she began tightening her arms around his throat, as if to strangle him.

"Stop that," said Aizawa, impatiently, "Get on with it. Arakawa-san, close your eyes and imagine that you're injured. Phase minimally."

She did as instructed, but Shinsou promptly started sinking slowly into the floor.

"I told you this wouldn't work," he said to Aizawa.

The door suddenly burst open, and Nakamura came in. Shinsou straightened up, and Misa promptly slid off his back and disappeared through the floor of the office.

"Woof! I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Nakamura said, looking at Shinsou, who was almost up to his knees into the floor by this time.

"We were just having a little experiment," said Aizawa mildly, "I assume Arakawa will soon resurface and extricate Shinsou."

Misa eventually came back up out of the floor, slightly red-faced, and helped pull Shinsou out.

"Woof! And so, what is today's meeting about?" inquired Nakamura, "Surely not the social committee again? The first quarter is over."

"We're reviewing Arakawa's progress," said Aizawa.

"Woof! As a matter of fact, that matter has come to my attention," said Nakamura, "We have standards to uphold in this institution. It is very unusual for someone with her qualifications to have been admitted. I would like to look into this in detail myself. Arakawa, I shall see you in my office today at 1400 hours sharp. You shall provide me with an exhaustive account of all the training you have been receiving. I've noticed that you and Shinsou were absent from the Directorate in February and March as well. I shall expect a detailed report of the field training conducted then."

"I've already submitted a report on that," said Aizawa.

"Woof! Well, I shall be subjecting her to comprehensive questioning to see if she has benefited from it," said Nakamura, "If I am not satisfied with her progress, I shall have her transferred out of Group Sigma to another group for better supervision."

He did not linger, but turned and left the room. As the door closed, the Group Sigma members looked at each other.

"I might have known this would be his next move," said Aizawa, drily.

Misa was looking apprehensive. "What shall I say to him?"

"We'll come up with something," said Aizawa.

"There's no need," said Shinsou briskly, "I'll handle it. The time has come for drastic action."

Aizawa looked at him suspiciously. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to very conspicuously make sure all the CCTV cameras capture me leaving this building right now," said Shinsou, a gleam in his eyes. He looked at Misa. "I'll be going in with you later. Meet me outside his office at 1400 hours."

Aizawa had a resigned expression on his face. "Well, whatever it is you're going to do, try not to be too exotic."

Shinsou grinned at him, then left the room.

.

.

Misa arrived punctually outside Nakamura's office at five to two. She had been there less than a minute when Miyagawa, the office attendant who usually cleaned the Director-General's office in the mornings, walked past her and winked.

She stared at him as he disappeared through the door. He looks a bit tall to be Miyagawa, she thought. Before the door closed, she heard him greet Nakamura's secretary. "Good afternoon."

Misa glanced at the CCTV camera at the end of the corridor, then hurried forward and caught the door before it closed. She heard the secretary say, "Miyagawa? – "

The woman had a blank expression on her face when Misa went in.

Miyagawa was standing in front of Nakamura's door. He was holding a large bucket, the kind used when mopping the floor, but Misa saw a parcel inside.

"Why are you dressed like that?" she whispered.

"Just a precaution," Shinsou whispered back, "although I don't think anyone saw me re-entering the building."

She looked at the parcel. "What's that?"

"You'll see," he said mysteriously. "It took me a while to find one of the right size. Shall we go in?"

Misa was feeling nervous, but Shinsou was maddeningly calm. He even looked as if he was enjoying himself.

Nakamura looked startled when they came in.

"Pardon the intrusion," said Shinsou, smoothly.

"What are you –" Nakamura began, and then became glassy-eyed.

"All right," said Shinsou coldly, "Tell me your real name, and how you managed to become Director-General."

"I am Kenichi Nakamura," said Nakamura, "I was sent here by Hikari. The Enlightened One used his mind control powers to see that my approval went through in the Ministry of Justice."

"Answer my questions. Who is Enlightened One?" asked Shinsou, looking intently at him.

"I do not know his real name," said Nakamura, "He is our leader. He is going to bring about a new world order."

"What was the purpose of sending you here?"

"To disrupt all of Covert Ops," said Nakamura, "We knew the Directorate was involved after we discovered undercover agents trying to infiltrate us. I was sent to find out who in Covert Ops had been assigned to Hikari, and to dismantle their operations."

"What do you know of the operations of Hikari?" asked Shinsou.

"I know nothing of Hikari's operations," said Nakamura, "I only know I was sent to the Directorate to create chaos."

"What is this new world order that the Enlightened One is going to bring about?" Shinsou persisted.

"We will create a genetically clean world, without any Quirkless people," said Nakamura, "We will be a superior race. We will rid the world of mediocrity and disorder."

"How will this be brought about?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not know," said Nakamura, "That has not been revealed to me."

Shinsou looked displeased. "Another pawn," he muttered.

He continued. "Why were you chosen for the job? Would not someone more high-ranking have been suitable?"

"There is no higher-ranking officer than I in the Directorate who belongs to Hikari," answered Nakamura, "and it did not matter. There was a furore when I was appointed, but it went through since the Ministry approved it. I may have little to show in making the Directorate progress since my appointment, but it will take a while before I am removed. To remove me too soon would be to admit my appointment was a mistake, and result in loss of face for the Ministry. By the time I am removed, I will have completely disrupted Covert Ops. I have narrowed down my search to Groups Sigma, Delta and Epsilon. I shall presently disband these groups and see that their members are discharged from the Directorate."

"We'll see about that," said Shinsou, grimly. He began to unwrap the parcel he was carrying, a menacing gleam in his eyes.

"Now, listen carefully to my instructions," he said to Nakamura, "and follow precisely what I am going to tell you to do."


	17. Ematsu

**17 EMATSU**

Misa had just finished having a cup of tea the following morning in the staff lounge and was on her way out, when she met Shinsou at the door.

"I still don't _believe_ what you did, yesterday," she whispered, smiling, before departing for her morning training.

Shinsou continued on into the lounge, and helped himself to a cup of coffee. A group of Directorate staff, including Kendou, Noriyuki and Tomonaga, were clustered around the TV at the far end of the room, watching the current affairs show _Good Morning Japan_.

.

"… _Yesterday afternoon shoppers and tourists alike were astonished to see a large man with a bloodhound's head dressed in a pink tutu and ballet shoes prancing around Shibuya Crossing. Whenever the lights turned red, the bloodhound would join the throng, pirouetting and leaping as if to some unknown symphony. In between crossings, he was bounding around the pavements with gay abandon, knocking shoppers over, and occasionally lifting his head and baying loudly, as if to the moon._

 _This went on for a good forty-five minutes before the bloodhound suddenly stripped and began prancing around, naked. The police intervened at this point and had the bloodhound removed for disrupting the peace and causing a public nuisance. What is most astounding is that the party in question was eventually identified as none other than Kenichi Nakamura, the Head of the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate._

 _Once taken into custody, Nakamura appeared to be suffering from amnesia and had absolutely no recollection of his uninhibited performance at Shibuya. Experts suggest that he could be suffering from some mental illness like schizophrenia. Although it is highly unusual for schizophrenia to manifest itself this late in life, it is not unheard of. He is currently undergoing examination at the Tokyo Institute for Mental Health._

 _Nakamura has currently been suspended as Head of the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate, and the deputy Head, Daisuke Nakamoto, has been appointed as interim Head. Rumour has it that the Ministry of Justice will be approaching the previous Director-General, Hirofumi Fujiwara, to take up his old post again._

 _Nakamura was appointed Head of the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate in October last year amid much controversy. He was previously Deputy Head of the Sapporo Intelligence Bureau. Further enquiries reveal that it is highly unusual for the Intelligence Head to come from such a low-ranking position. A query has been sent to the Ministry of Justice regarding Nakamura's unusual appointment and his extraordinary behaviour, but the Ministry has yet to respond._

 _In the meantime, social media has gone wild displaying videos of Nakamura's bizarre performance at Shibuya._

 _Join us at nine for an interview with Professor Noriko Nakagami, a consultant at the Institute of Mental Health dealing with early psychosis intervention …_

 _._

Kendou was watching, open-mouthed, her eyes like saucers. She turned around, and saw Shinsou at the other end of the lounge, coffee cup in hand.

"Shinsou, _you_ did this!" she said vehemently, her voice shaking slightly, " _You_ did it! _I know you did!_ Remind me to never, never, never, _ever_ cross you!"

Iridium was looking elated.

"Well done," she said jubilantly, "We've gotten rid of him!"

"Excellent!" said Radon.

"Brilliant," said Tomonaga.

"Awesome," said Noriyuki.

"Overdone," said Aizawa.

Shinsou had finished his coffee. He disposed of his cup, and prepared to leave.

"I wish I could claim credit," he said mildly, "but I wasn't even in the building yesterday afternoon."

And with that, he left the room.

The others went off after a while, but Tomonaga continued standing in front of the TV, his expression deadpan as usual, watching in fascination as the video of Nakamura was replayed.

"It's like a nightmare brought to life," he said.

Noriyuki was watching, too. He turned to Tomonaga.

"So – this means we don't need to do all that social committee stuff any more, right?"

.

.

Ematsu was a small town in north-central Shizuoka, situated along a river and surrounded by forest and mountains. To the north ran the Japanese Alps. Misa, seated in the passenger's seat of the car with Shinsou at the wheel, looked out at the scenery, and felt that this seemed more like a holiday than a serious assignment.

"Where are we meeting Shinohara?" she asked, as the car went down the winding road, past terraces of green tea plantations set on the mountainside, and the town gradually came into view.

"At the Hotel Hanayura," said Shinsou, "He says we can't miss it, it's the only high rise building in the entire town."

They found it easily enough; the hotel was eight storeys high, and towered above the rest of the town.

"You wouldn't think they'd get much business in a small town like this," said Misa, peering at the hotel, "but I see a number of buses here."

"They say tourism's on the uptrend, here," said Shinsou.

"It looks very new," said Misa, referring to the hotel.

"It is," said Shinsou, "but I wouldn't advise staying in it. It was built by Hasegawa Construction – Citadel's family company – and if you recall, they haven't been high on safety standards lately."

They spotted Shinohara in his car, and followed as he led them to the outskirts of the town. At one point, he slowed his car near the gate of a walled piece of property, before picking up speed again.

"That's the house," said Shinsou, "We'll go have a look once we've settled in."

Shinohara eventually drove his car down a small, winding lane, and then onto the grass verge and into a copse of trees. They followed suit.

"It's a bit of a walk," he said, after they had camouflaged the cars, "and I think you'll be surprised when you see what the camp looks like." He had an air of suppressed excitement about him.

"I don't like surprises," remarked Shinsou, "and generally whenever people tell me something like that, the surprise invariably turns out to be something less than pleasant."

Shinohara just grinned at him, before turning and leading the way into the forest.

The forest floor was dim, and the deeper in they went, the taller and larger the trees became. Misa looked at them in awe. It was quiet, and she felt as if they were walking back in time. Occasionally she saw one or two of what is known as the Japanese red cedar, or _sugi_ , tree. These were immense, and had probably seen the passage of time for hundreds of years, some perhaps even millenia.

Shinohara eventually stopped next to one of these giants, and looked at them.

"Where's the camp?" asked Shinsou.

"Here," said Shinohara, pointing at the cedar.

There was a pregnant pause, and then Shinsou said, "You built the camp in a tree?"

He looked at Misa, and saw that she had an absolutely thrilled expression on her face.

"You're quite right," said Shinohara, beaming at them, "the supply tent is on the ground, of course, inside the tree which is hollow. But we sleep up there and the monitoring equipment is up there, too."

"Hold on a minute," said Shinsou, looking at the girth of the tree, "This thing looks at least ten metres in circumference. How tall is this tree?"

"At least forty metres, I would say," said Shinohara, "but we've got the camp at thirty metres."

Shinsou stared at him.

"We've got to climb up and down thirty metres of tree every time we enter or leave the camp?"

"It won't be a problem," said Misa quickly, "I can levitate us up and down, it won't take much effort."

"It's not that bad," said Shinohara, looking rather apologetic, "it was more secure than camping on the ground. The occupants of the house liked patrolling around outside with dogs when we first came, and being up in the tree kept us out of their way."

Shinsou glared at him.

"Of course, it's not bad for _you_ ," he said, "You can fly. And you can transport Ishida up and down."

Shinohara's Quirk enabled him to transform into an owl, while Ishida was able to shrink his body size. This made them an effective team because Ishida could shrink himself to a size small enough for Shinohara to carry, and it was easy for them to stealthily enter houses and set up monitoring equipment.

"Well, not when it comes to carrying supplies and heavy things," Shinohara pointed out, "And it _really_ isn't that bad – at least, the going down part isn't. Anyway, you plan to continue keeping fit while you're here, don't you? Come and have a look. The tree's got hollow spaces up to the camp level, we've fixed step irons inside to make a ladder."

Shinsou looked at Misa.

"We could set a tent up on the ground as usual," he said, "but judging by the rapt expression on your face, I gather if I do that I'll have to stay in it alone, won't I?"

She looked pleadingly at him. "Let's just go up and see what it's like there, before we decide."

The camp consisted of a square wooden platform with sides about four metres in length, surrounded by a wooden railing. It looked secure enough. It had been camouflaged with foliage, and a tent was set up in the middle. The other scout, Ishida, was inside. He raised a hand in greeting.

"Well, what do you think?" asked Shinohara, bursting with pride.

"What's this?" said Shinsou, looking at the metal mesh surrounding the tent.

"It's a Faraday cage," said Shinohara, "Ishida is frightened of lightning."

"I can't think how long you took to build this," said Shinsou, "You seem to have missed your vocation."

Shinohara, however, had noticed Misa's admiring face, and was satisfied.

"We can see the house from here," remarked Ishida, "and the road leading to it, too."

"So we can," said Shinsou, looking out. "The view's not bad," he admitted.

"We've recorded anything we thought significant in the logbook, same as we did in Kamone," said Ishida, as Shinsou came over to look at the laptop, "We sent Aizawa an encrypted copy last week, I don't know if you've seen it."

Shinsou nodded.

"Bad news, though, Cyanide left the house early this morning and still hasn't returned," Ishida continued, "I couldn't make out his voice too clearly, but I think he's gone to somewhere in Ibaraki. Shinohara tried following him, but he gave him the slip."

"No matter, we'll stake it out here for a while," replied Shinsou. He glanced at Misa. "I think my sidekick will be more than happy to have an excuse to stay longer."

"We brought some stores up for you," said Shinohara, picking his bag up and getting ready to leave. "Call me or Ishida if you need anything."

The two scouts said goodbye, and disappeared down into the depths of the tree.

"I'll start unpacking," said Misa, trying not to look too gleeful.

"You'll be less enthusiastic after the platform comes loose and sends us hurtling to the ground," remarked Shinsou.

"It's less damp than on the ground," she said, in a conciliatory tone.

"It's a lot colder and windier," he retorted. But he smiled at her when he saw her looking at him in concern, to show that he actually didn't really mind.

.

.

When Shinohara and Ishida had first located the Hikari house in Ematsu, the cult had certainly seemed to be on heightened alert. There was a surveillance system set up in the grounds and within the house as well, and its occupants also appeared to be patrolling the surrounding forested areas.

The two scouts had managed to enter the house during the night, and had placed a couple of Magnetron's tiny cameras inside. They had also reported that there was a large underground complex located beneath the house.

Five months after the Kamone assignment, Aizawa had decided that things had died down enough for Shinsou and Misa to set forth. Ishida had reported that most of the patrols to the forest had ceased, and that the cult's surveillance cameras inside the main house had also been removed, although they had been retained in the underground complex and the grounds. The main house was where the cult leaders such as Graveyard and Maniac stayed, and it was possible that the Hikari leaders found it irksome to have surveillance equipment constantly monitoring them.

Once Shinsou and Misa had settled down at their tree camp, they paid a visit to the Hikari house. Misa was intrigued to see that it was a replica of a Japanese castle. She thought it a handsome building; unlike most traditional castles it was made of reinforced concrete, painted white, and had a _tenshu_ , or central building, consisting of four storeys, each floor delineated by grey tiled eaves and dormer gables, while golden _shachihoko_ decorated the roof corners.

Unlike Kamone, the house was an established Hikari centre with a hundred cult members. Most lived in the six-storey underground complex beneath the castle. This was the first time Shinsou and Misa were seeing the finished work of the Stone Masons, and it was impressive. The complex contained a propaganda production studio, as well as a munitions factory and several laboratories. There were dormitories for the cult members, and also kitchens and a cafeteria. The castle itself, which was comfortably furnished, was reserved for the Hikari leaders such as Cyanide, Graveyard and Maniac, as well as about twenty more senior cult members.

They sneaked into the house on several nights, evading the surveillance cameras by jamming them and playing a recorded loop. The munitions factory appeared to be producing AK-47 assault rifle parts. One of the laboratories looked as if it was producing nerve gas. There was a storage facility which, Shinsou grimly noted, contained a stockpile of chemicals that looked as if it could produce enough nerve gas to kill half a million people.

They took photos of the munitions factory and laboratories for cataloguing purposes. Shinsou also took some samples from one of the laboratories which he said looked as if it was producing Quirk-nullifying drugs.

"We want to know what they're up to, here," he said, "especially if they're producing Quirk-nullifying or enhancing drugs. We want to test how successful they've been in developing these."

However, their main objective in Ematsu was to interrogate Cyanide, the second-tier Hikari leader that Graveyard had mentioned, and hopefully any other more senior Hikari leaders who might come to visit. This seemed their only option so far if they were to find out who the mastermind behind the cult was. Since Cyanide was currently absent, they could only wait for his return, and once they had finished looking around the underground facility, they carried on the monitoring from the camp.

Misa thought Shinsou might want to interrogate the cult members or villains currently residing in the house, but he decided to wait till Cyanide came back.

"Let's interview Cyanide first," he said, "and if we get nothing useful out of him, then we can try the rest. It's doubtful the cult members or third-tier leaders here are going to give us anything more useful than what we learned in Kamone. It'll be troublesome to brainwash the surveillance team, since there are more of them, and I want to minimise moving around the premises. Maniac has a good sense of smell, and if he comes across our scent here he might recognise it from Kamone."

So they stayed in their cedar tree camp, and monitored the castle remotely. However, days and then weeks passed, and there was no sign of Cyanide.


	18. The Storm

**18 THE STORM**

Three weeks passed, and there was still no sign of Cyanide. Misa gradually became used to the routine of being in Ematsu. She was finding this second assignment quite different from the first. She and Shinsou had become used to working together as a team now, and they took turns to do the monitoring. He generally took the night shifts, leaving the days to her, but as she had noticed in Kamone, he seemed to require very little sleep, and often took over some of the monitoring in the day as well, so that she was free to do other chores, like preparing the meals, or going to the town to replenish their stores when they ran out.

She had managed to put her disappointments over the first assignment behind her, and discovered she was actually enjoying this second one. Firstly, they were in idyllic surroundings, and there was the novelty of living in that ancient and beautiful cedar tree. It was indeed windy and rather cold, but the tent was snug and had a heater. She liked hearing the wind in the branches, and the chorus of birdsong that often resounded through the surrounding forest.

Then she was glad to be spending time with Shinsou. She acknowledged that she had become fond of him, but she didn't expect him to look at her. She had realised, after listening to Ayumi during the staff outing, that as his sidekick she had an enormous privilege when it came to spending time with him. She was with him twenty-four hours a day, for weeks at a time.

It didn't really matter that they hardly spoke most of the time, and if they did, it was usually to discuss chores, or their assignment and what to do next. She just liked knowing he was there. She noted that he seemed largely unsentimental about their surroundings and was quite focused on getting their work done, and she felt it was just as well that at least one of them was being consistently sensible and level-headed.

Shinsou, who perhaps was not quite as focused as his sidekick imagined, was actually quietly watching her as well as the monitoring equipment. She got up early and went to bed late, and if he needed to go down the tree in the middle of the night to get something from the supply tent, she somehow always seemed to wake up to levitate him down and up again.

She was quite focused about getting the chores done and doing the monitoring, but he saw her quietly stealing a few minutes here and there, going to the edge of the platform and peeking out to watch the sun rising or setting, or watching the mist curling its way among the trees below in the early mornings. He noticed that she spent a lot of time looking at the night sky too, and this piqued his interest. He decided to ask her about it.

"You're always peering up at the sky," he said one night, when he saw her sitting near the edge of the platform, after clearing away the dishes.

Misa gave him a rather guilty smile, and began to get up. "You're right, I should be getting down to washing some of the clothes, shouldn't I?"

"It's all right," said Shinsou, stopping her, "Don't go. You're entitled to a break now and then."

She saw that he had brought her a cup of tea, and accepted it, shyly.

He had made himself a coffee, and sat down near her, so she resumed her seat, looking at him wonderingly.

"I keep seeing you looking at the sky," he said again, "Not only here, but back at the apartment in Yosano, and even that time in Akabara Park. What are you looking at? The stars?"

Misa felt embarrassed that he had noticed.

"Yes," she said, her face reddening a bit, "I got into the habit of looking at them back in Iideyama. We often had hero work at night. Hideo would teleport us, and we always seemed to end up in some remote place, waiting in a field, or somewhere in the mountains. It would be pitch dark, and the stars were often really bright."

She glanced at Shinsou. He seemed to be waiting for her to continue, so she went on.

"I wasn't really happy at home, you know. Other people always like the thought of coming home, but we would go to these unfamiliar places and I wouldn't want to go home. I would think to myself, there's no difference being here and being at home."

Her expression was rather wistful.

"I always look up at the night sky and tell myself this phrase: 'I wonder if the stars are set alight in heaven, so that one day each one of us may find his own again'."

Shinsou said slowly, "… the stars are set alight …?"

"It's from a children's book a classmate once loaned me in school," she explained, "about a prince who lives on another planet and comes to Earth. At night he looks up at the stars, and thinks about finding his way back home."

She paused.

"I liked that line a lot. Whenever I look up at the stars now, I tell myself that: one day, I'll find my way home, too."

She fell silent, feeling she had said too much. Shinsou was quiet for a minute, and then said, "So is that what you plan to study when you go to university? The stars?"

"Oh no," she said immediately, "It's too difficult, you know, and I was always such a dud in school."

"That was because you didn't have time to study," said Shinsou, "You picked up things fast enough during your training."

"No, I've thought about it," said Misa, "It's also a difficult subject, but if I could, I thought I might try earthquake science. We get so many earthquakes in Japan."

Shinsou was about to say something, but the wind suddenly picked up. There was a sudden flash of light, followed by the distant rumble of thunder.

"Looks like a storm is coming," he said, as they both scrambled to their feet. They hurriedly gathered up whatever was lying on the platform, and placed it inside the tent. They then got into the tent and closed it. Before long, the rain started.

Misa tried settling down to sleep, but the tree kept swaying in the wind, and the patter of rain and constant flashes of lightning and the thunder kept her awake.

Shinsou was watching the laptop, and seeing that Misa wasn't sleeping, indicated that she come and look at something.

"I think Cyanide is back," he said, as she joined him at the small table.

Misa peered at the figure on the screen.

"He brought the storm with him," she said, "Are you thinking of interrogating him tonight? I don't think I'll be getting any sleep anyway."

"Maybe we should," said Shinsou, "You never know how long he's going to stay – "

There was a loud clap of thunder, and the rain began to pour down in irresistible torrents. They heard a cracking sound, and suddenly several huge branches fell on top of the tent. One managed to pierce through both wire mesh and tent, and several gaping holes formed. Water began pouring in so fast that neither Shinsou nor Misa had time to react. It swept the laptop off the table, and it hit the floor with a crash.

Shinsou hurriedly retrieved the laptop, while Misa tried moving things out of the way. After a while, they realised that it was futile. The tent was getting flooded because the rain was coming in faster than it was draining away, and everything inside was drenched.

"This is no good," said Shinsou, raising his voice over the sound of the wind and rain, "The storm may well last the whole night. There's no point staying here. I think we had better get a room at the hotel for tonight."

"The hotel?" said Misa.

"It's the only place that's likely to be open at this hour," said Shinsou, "and it's big enough that there should be rooms available. There are a couple of ryokans and small inns in the town, but I don't think they'll take too kindly to us rousing them in the middle of the night."

Braving the rain, they packed what they could, and put it in the trunk of the car. They were both soaked to the skin, and Misa found that there was no use phasing anything. What had become wet, still remained wet. She managed to get some dry towels from the supply tent to spread over the car seats as well as dry themselves a bit.

"Wait here for me," Shinsou said to her, after he had parked the car at the hotel, "We'll try sneaking the tent and other things in once I've secured us a room."

He made his way to the hotel reception. It was the middle of the night, and the lobby was empty except for the receptionist. She looked alarmed when Shinsou appeared; he seemed quite oblivious to the fact that he had just tracked a large amount of mud onto the lobby's spotless marble floor.

"Good evening," he said pleasantly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to walk into a hotel lobby completely drenched in the dead of night and ask for lodging, "Are there any rooms available?"

"I'm afraid there's only one penthouse suite left, sir," said the receptionist, trying not to stare, "More than half the rooms have been taken up by the Saitama Seismological Research Institute – they're having their annual retreat here. And the rest of the rooms have been booked by the Ematsu Chief of Fire Services for his guests, because his daughter is having a wedding reception here tomorrow night."

"Penthouse suite?" said Shinsou, "How much is that going to cost?"

The receptionist mentioned a sum which Shinsou knew would give Aizawa an apoplectic fit.

"That's a bit out of the range of our budget," said Shinsou, "is it possible to get a discount?"

"I'm afraid only the manager can decide that, sir," said the receptionist.

"Well, go and get him, then," said Shinsou.

"But he's asleep – " said the receptionist, before her face went blank.

.

.

Misa was transfixed to see Shinsou returning with three blank-faced hotel staff.

"We've got the penthouse," he said, "which is good. It should be big enough for me to spread the tent out and mend it. Give the tent and sleeping bags and wet clothes to these three. I've told them to wash and dry everything for us, including the car."

The suite looked extremely grand to Misa, who hadn't had a chance to stay in many hotel rooms. It was almost dawn by the time they checked in, and she spent a while looking at the view from the window. It was much easier to focus on work when they were roughing it out at the camp, Misa thought. Staying in the hotel had a definite holiday feel.

Shinsou, however, seemed quite indifferent to their surroundings. Still wearing his mud-spattered clothes, he had placed the laptop in a corner of the room, and was trying to repair it.

"You can have a bath and then get some rest," he said to Misa, "You might as well make use of the facilities, since the Directorate is paying for us to stay here."

He tried not to stare at her, though, when she came out of the bathroom. He hadn't realized her hair was so long; it swirled around her, and there seemed to be something alive about it. She was wearing a yukata provided by the hotel, since she had no dry clothes to change into, and he was acutely aware that it was unlikely she was wearing anything under it.

"I'm done with the bathroom," she said.

"I'll just finish this," said Shinsou. He had set the laptop aside, and was now mending the tent, which the hotel staff had just returned.

"Do you need any help?" she asked.

"No," he smiled at her. "Get some rest. You can have the bed, I'll take the sofa."

"Oh, the bed's so big, we can share it," said Misa, "I'm not particular about such things."

Shinsou was tempted. He looked at Misa standing by the bed, her hair falling almost to her waist, and her yukata sash loosely tied, waiting to be yanked off.

"Better not," he thought, "I don't think I'd be able to control myself."

"It's all right," he said aloud, glancing at the sofa, "the sofa's fine."

Misa, who had secretly been hoping that he wouldn't be able to control himself, was a bit disappointed.

"Get some sleep," Shinsou said, "You didn't get any last night, and tonight is likely to be a busy night, if Cyanide is still at the castle."

He turned his back on her, and continued mending the tent.

She obediently got into the bed. She couldn't help letting her mind wander, though.

"He's so hot," she thought to herself, as she drifted off to sleep, "I'd love to be able to phase all his clothes off him."

Shinsou finished mending the tent, and then went off to the bathroom himself to wash up.

When he came out, he checked on Misa, and saw that she was fast asleep.

He arranged the bed covers more securely over her, and then stood looking at her for a while.

"I should brainwash her into making love with me," he thought. He chuckled, amused by the idea. "But then, if we were to do it, I wouldn't want it to be because I'd brainwashed her."

He bent down and gave her a quick kiss, and then, still smiling, made his way over to the sofa at the other end of the room.


	19. The Castle

**19 THE CASTLE**

Shinsou and Misa decided to check out of the hotel and go early to the Hikari castle, since the laptop was broken and they were unable to monitor what was happening there. They arrived in the early evening, to find Cyanide on the second floor. He was bald, and had a large, spherical head and pale eyes. His skin was grey and rather sickly-looking. He was in the parlour with Graveyard and Maniac and two other cult members, drinking beer.

There were several rooms adjacent to the parlour that the cult leaders used for dining. Each was in traditional Japanese style, with a low table and tatami floor matting, and fusuma doors painted with a scene of mountains. In one wall was a tokonoma, or small alcove, decorated with a hanging scroll and an ikebana flower arrangement.

Most of the other senior cult members were already having dinner in one of the rooms, but a second room was being prepared for what looked like a special dinner. Some of the female cult members had dressed up as geisha, and were preparing the table for a kaiseki–style meal, where the food was served in many courses, each dish arranged like a small work of art.

"Looks like Cyanide is celebrating something," whispered Shinsou, "phase us nearer so that we can eavesdrop better, will you?"

The castle walls were thicker than the thin wooden ones at Kamone, which made it easier to remain hidden while phasing their way around. After listening for about ten minutes to the conversation in the parlour, it became evident that Cyanide had just been promoted to a first-tier Hikari leader, which explained his long absence. He had gone to Ibaraki for the initiation ceremony, followed by a period of training and familiarisation.

"That's a stroke of luck for us," whispered Shinsou, his eyes gleaming, "He might even have met the cult leader."

They waited until the villains had moved over to the dining room, and then Shinsou said quietly, "Do you know where the geisha costumes are kept?"

"I think so," said Misa, "We checked the castle quite thoroughly when we first arrived. There's a dressing room down the corridor with a lot of kimonos in the wardrobe. I was wondering at the time what they were for."

"Well, we need you to put one on and wait in his bedroom," said Shinsou.

Misa gazed at him in horror. "What?"

"It'll only be for a couple of minutes," said Shinsou, holding up his voice changer, which fortunately had escaped damage by the storm. "I'll stand behind you and talk to him. There's no alternative. My disguise kit was ruined by the rain, so I can't dress up as a cult member."

"But he might remember seeing me, when he wakes up from being brainwashed," said Misa.

"Well, there are geisha all over the place this evening," said Shinsou, "There are four or five in the other room with the senior cult members and another four serving Cyanide. We'll hope he'll think you were one of them."

They made their way cautiously over to the dressing room. No one was there, and the wardrobe was full of gorgeous kimonos; Misa thought she could spend hours just admiring all the different designs.

"I don't know which patterns are for summer," she said.

"It doesn't matter," said Shinsou, amused. He took one out, a dark mauve one sprinkled with golden and orange chrysanthemums. "Here, this will do."

He took an obi out as well. It was pale gold, embroidered with flowers. Misa, worried that someone might come in, hurriedly slipped the kimono on over her clothes, and tied the obi as best she could. Several wigs were also lying on a chair, and she picked one up.

"I don't need to put on the makeup, do I?" she said, "I wouldn't know how to do it."

"I think you had better put some on," said Shinsou, "so that he doesn't have a chance to see your real face. I'll help you with it."

He found some makeup on the dressing table, and they brought it to the fourth floor where the bedrooms were, because they knew there were a few there which were usually unoccupied. Shinsou painted Misa's face white, shading the sides of her nose and eye sockets with pink, and outlining her eyes in black. She then tried the wig on. It was heavy, and was adorned with flowers, dangling silver pins, ribbons and combs. When she looked in the mirror, she couldn't recognise herself.

Shinsou laughed. "A real geisha wouldn't approve," he said, "but it'll do." He took the voice changer out, and began to tune it.

The wig was giving Misa a headache; she decided to put it on nearer to the time when the dinner might be over. Once the voice changer had been tuned, they phased back downstairs. There was a store room on the third floor directly above the dining room, and Misa phased a couple of periscopes and a listening device through the floor so that they could spy on the villains.

Besides the three Hikari leaders, the two other cult members had also joined them for the dinner. Misa was fiddling with her wig and letting Shinsou do the monitoring, when she noticed that he seemed to be listening rather intently.

"I'm wondering if it's not illness that you're having, Kato," Cyanide was saying, "Perhaps your loyalty to Hikari is wavering."

"It's no such thing, Uchida-san," said one of the cult members earnestly, "Maeda and I are telling the truth. We haven't been feeling well for a while …we have seen our doctor here, but he says we need more specialised treatment than what he can give us. There is a hospital in Ematsu. We can go there."

Misa peeked through her periscope. "Is something happening?"

"Look at Cyanide's hand," said Shinsou quietly.

Cyanide had made a brief squeezing motion over Kato's sake cup. Misa thought she saw some sort of liquid dripping from his hand.

"Finish your sake while I think about it, Kato," he said.

Kato picked his sake cup up and drank from it. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, his eyes widened in horror and he began to twitch. He fell to the floor, his body in convulsions. Within minutes, he was dead.

Maeda was staring at the body in terror.

"I don't think he needs treatment any more," said Graveyard, "What about you, Maeda?"

"I – I didn't agree with Kato anyway, Ogawa-san," said Maeda, his face pale, "He made me come here with him, you know, because he didn't want to come alone."

"I see," said Cyanide, "Well, I'm glad to know at least you're in good health."

"I – I think I'll use the washroom," said Maeda faintly. "Excuse me."

He got up and left the room. Cyanide looked at Maniac. "Finish him off."

Maniac got up and went out. They heard Maeda give one short scream, and the hyena's high-pitched laugh.

Cyanide laughed unpleasantly. "His good health appears to have deserted him." He looked at the geisha, who were standing by watching, their eyes wide with fright. "Go get someone to clean the mess up."

Shinsou looked at Misa. There was only one listening device, so she had only been watching through the periscope.

"You don't need to tell me," she said, looking sick, "I think I'd rather not know."

They had to wait another one and a half hours before the feasting ended. Misa dozed off. Shinsou woke her a few times because he thought someone was going to enter the store room, but fortunately no one did.

Finally, the dinner was over. The senior cult members in the neighbouring room had retired to their rooms, and were nowhere to be seen. Cyanide, Maniac, Graveyard and some of the geisha were making their way to the elevator.

Cyanide's bedroom was on the fourth floor. Misa hurriedly phased herself and Shinsou up through the concrete walls.

"What am I supposed to do?" she said, once they had reached the bedroom and she had put the wig on.

"Just bow when he comes in," said Shinsou.

"But what if all of them come into his room?" asked Misa.

"Bow to each in turn," said Shinsou, "I'll do the talking. I just need to get one word out of each of them."

Misa gave a small sigh. She felt that there were just so many things that could go wrong with such a plan, and she could only hope things wouldn't turn out a disaster as they had in Kamone. Shinsou positioned himself so that he would be hidden behind the bedroom door when it opened, and Misa stood near him, just in front of the door.

Fortunately, the other villains made off to their rooms with their respective geisha, and only Cyanide and one geisha came in. They looked startled when they saw Misa.

She bowed. "Uchida-san, good evening!" Shinsou had programmed a high-pitched, piping voice into the voice changer.

Cyanide looked suspicious. "What is this? Who are you?" he said. His face became blank.

The villain was standing right next to the door. Shinsou hissed at him, "Tell your geisha she can go back to her dormitory. Get angry if she doesn't obey."

"You can go back to your dormitory," Cyanide said to the geisha.

"But – " said the geisha. She saw the expression on Cyanide's face and, terrified, scuttled out the door.

Misa hurriedly closed the door. "Won't she tell the other cult members about me?" she asked.

"Probably," said Shinsou, "But no one's going to dare ask Cyanide about it, and hopefully by the time anyone tries figuring it out, we'll be gone from here."

He was already laying out the recording equipment, which fortunately was usually kept in a waterproof bag and had also escaped damage from the rain.

Misa went to the bathroom to remove the kimono and wash the makeup off. It took her a while, after which she hurriedly returned the kimono and its accessories to the dressing room. The castle was quiet. She returned in time to hear Shinsou saying, "So you have met the Enlightened One? Where is he to be found?"

"The place where he permanently resides remains secret," answered Cyanide, "He came down to our Hikari establishment in Ibaraki for the initiation of the first-tier leaders."

"Who would know where he resides?" asked Shinsou, looking intently at him.

"Probably Caligula," said Cyanide, "He is the one helping to select most of the first-tier leaders and training them. They say he is becoming one of the Enlightened One's most trusted men, and may soon join him as one of his advisors at the main headquarters."

"But you don't know where these headquarters are," said Shinsou.

"No," said Cyanide, "Even many of the first-tier leaders do not have the privilege of knowing."

"Where can Caligula be found?" asked Shinsou.

"At our Hikari base in Inashiki in Ibaraki prefecture," answered Cyanide. He named the address.

"And who are the other leaders there?"

"Anthrax, whose real name is Giichi Ueda, and Despair, who is Kiyoshi Kurosawa."

"What are their Quirks?" asked Shinsou.

"Anthrax's touch is toxic and causes boils and lesions on the body," answered Cyanide, "Despair can manipulate the emotions of people."

"We should make a note of that," said Shinsou, looking at Misa.

Turning back to Cyanide, he said, "Tell me if you know the Enlightened One's name and his origins."

"His name is Samuru Akahara," said Cyanide, "He first became well known as a history professor in Kumamoto University. His specialty in history was racial cleansing. He was a gifted speaker, and became popular with a large following.

"He was invited to give talks all around Japan, and also travelled widely to other countries. Ten years ago, he had a vision of a perfect world. He realised the errors of the present world are due to the failings of men … to solve the current ills of future generations, we must create a perfect race … we must rid ourselves of mediocrity. Only then can we live in harmony."

"So how did Hikari come about?" asked Shinsou.

"He realised all the inferior genes in men must be eliminated," said Cyanide, "and he set about to eradicate the Quirkless. He began to gather his followers together. He had a student who was a devout disciple named Shimoda who came from a rich family. He got him to start a charitable organisation, and from there, those suitable to work for the cause were selected.

"He also set about to collect some of the finest minds and talents in the country to work for him, and he converted many wealthy businessmen to his cause. They provided him with funding. Land was bought for Hikari use, or was donated by various rich Hikari members. Underground facilities were built so that the movement could remain secret. We know that there are forces outside who will oppose us because they do not understand our cause, and until we have built up our strength, we shall conceal our activities."

"Hikari is also assembling a large amount of weapons," said Shinsou, "Why is this?"

"Because the Enlightened One has revealed that a Third World War is coming," answered Cyanide, "and we have to build up our defences and arm ourselves if we are to survive the coming apocalypse. We are now living in an age when evils of all sorts thrive. This evil will be shed in a catastrophic discharge made manifest in wars and natural disasters. Only those who repent of their evil deeds and join Hikari will survive to enjoy a golden age. Nuclear armageddon, initiated by decadent countries, will bring the world to an end. All humanity will die, except the few who join Hikari."

Shinsou changed the subject. "Is Hikari aware that the Intelligence Directorate has them under investigation?"

"I am not aware of that," said Cyanide.

"Are you aware that the Hikari premises at Kamone were broken into last March?"

"Yes, Graveyard informed me," said Cyanide, "Carousel was killed. The intruders had freed one of the recruits and were trying to get her to divulge information about Hikari."

"Do you know who these intruders were?" asked Shinsou.

"Hikari has many enemies," said Cyanide, "they were probably heroes employed by the police, or by the families of Hikari members who want them to leave the movement. They must have followed the recruits from Hakone. Graveyard said they only managed to free that one recruit, but he apprehended them before she could reveal anything to them. The intruders fled in a car. He gave chase, but they died when the car went over a cliff. I told Graveyard it was fortunate he disposed of them, or else his third-tier leadership would be forfeit."

Shinsou and Misa exchanged glances.

"Looks like our spy in the Directorate, if he exists, answers to someone higher up than our friend here," said Shinsou quietly, "and Graveyard has covered up what happened with us in Kamone because he feared losing his position of leadership. That works to our advantage."

"Could you ask what happened to Mai Yamada?" said Misa.

"What happened to the recruit who was freed?" Shinsou said to Cyanide.

"Graveyard told me she tried to escape instead of returning to the women's bedroom. She was caught and summarily dealt with."

"In what way?" asked Shinsou.

"I did not ask him," said Cyanide, "There are standard ways of dealing with such miscreants."

Shinsou saw Misa's expression.

"It doesn't mean anything," he said, trying to reassure her, "because we don't know if Graveyard is telling the truth. The Yamada girl could have escaped, just that he lied to Cyanide about it to avoid getting himself into further trouble."

He looked at Cyanide. "Is Hikari on heightened alert now that one of its establishments has been broken into?"

"We were on the alert for a while," replied Cyanide, "But we believe Kamone was invaded because it was not well fortified. The heroes were also ignorant, trying to extract information from a recruit. She could not have told them much that was useful. We have faith in our other Hikari establishments. Hikari is the future, and destiny lies with us. No outsider will ever be able to overthrow it."

Shinsou went on to another topic.

"Tell me about Akahara's Quirk," he said, "How does he activate it and what can he do with it?"

"He can control minds," said Cyanide, "He activates it by eye contact. He can make you do his bidding. He can remove memories and plant desires. He is very powerful."

"Is your mind under his control?" asked Shinsou.

"He controls everyone in Hikari," said Cyanide, "and it is entirely our will that he does so. He is the Enlightened One and knows what is best. It is our privilege to serve him."

"Is there any way to break away, once you are under his control?" asked Shinsou.

"I do not believe so," said Cyanide.

"Can a person's memories ever be retrieved, once he has removed them?" Shinsou persisted.

"I do not know," said Cyanide.

Shinsou quizzed Cyanide for more than an hour, until he felt there was nothing left to extract from him. He then told Cyanide to lie down on his bed and go to sleep.

"Let's get out of here," he said quietly to Misa. She could tell by his expression that the interview had been momentous. They had actually unearthed a considerable amount of information about the cult leader.

But they dared not rejoice too soon. They still had to leave the castle and get back to the car.


	20. Hanayura Hotel

**20 HANAYURA HOTEL**

To Shinsou and Misa, leaving the castle seemed to take a long time, phasing through the walls and then underground, holding the precious recording. But finally, they arrived at the copse of trees where they had left the car.

They looked at each other, elated. Misa, who had been worried that this assignment might turn out like the first, couldn't help feeling gleeful. They had just found out almost everything they needed to know about the Hikari cult leader, they had not been discovered this time, and they had made it back, safe and sound.

She was almost jumping for joy. Shinsou, seeing this, picked her up and whirled her around in the air, in a rare display of exuberance. Laughing, she threw her arms around him, and hugged him.

Realising what she was doing, she pulled away after a moment, embarrassed. But the way Shinsou was now looking at her was making her heart beat fast. Before she knew what had happening, he had pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

He was kissing her hard on the mouth, and she responded, sliding her arms up around his neck. He loosened her hair, so that it came cascading down. She could feel his hands moving over her body ...

He kissed her mouth, and then her face and neck. She was pressing herself against him, letting him kiss her, when she heard him say as if from far away, "The earth is moving."

"Yes," she whispered, eyes closed, "l know."

But Shinsou had stopped. He was standing as if listening, his arms still around her.

"Misa," he said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice, "The ground is shaking!"

Misa opened her eyes. The ground _was_ shaking. In front of her, Shinsou seemed to be shaking as well. She glanced past him at the surrounding trees, and they were shaking too.

There was a rumbling noise all around them. In the distance, they heard a more prolonged, rumbling sound, and she knew an avalanche had occurred somewhere up in the mountains.

"Earthquake!" said Shinsou. He looked at the place where their car was hidden. "We had better get the car out from under the trees."

They got into the car, and he drove it out some way until they were back on the road, under the open sky. In the distance, they could see the town and Hanayura Hotel, towering over the surrounding buildings.

The rumbling was still continuing.

"It's a big one," Misa said.

"Yes," said Shinsou. He turned to look at her, and then reached out and squeezed her hand. "Not a very convenient time for it to happen, was it?"

His hand felt very warm. She smiled shyly, glad it was dark enough so that he couldn't see how much she was blushing.

The rumbling finally subsided. Cracks were appearing in the grass verge next to the road, and what looked like water was bubbling up. The ground was undergoing liquefaction. Misa was watching it in fascination, when Shinsou suddenly exclaimed, "Look at the hotel!"

Misa turned to look at the hotel – except that it wasn't there any more.

She gazed in horror, open-mouthed. In the dimness of the night, clouds of dust were rising into the sky. The hotel had collapsed.

Shinsou was looking tense.

"A lot of people will have been trapped under there," he said, "We'd better go over and see if we can do anything."

He started the car, and headed for the town. "Call the nearest hero rescue team," he said to Misa.

She tried checking for the number, and made the call, but there was no reply.

The rest of the houses in the town seemed largely intact, and a small group of townspeople was gathering near the remains of the hotel when they arrived.

Misa finally managed to get through to the rescue team.

"They're busy in the bigger city areas, because the quake has affected a lot of places," she said, "Ematsu is very remote. But they say they have two heroes who were on holiday near here, and they're asking them to come over and help."

"You've done rescue before, haven't you?" said Shinsou, looking at the rubble.

"Twice," said Misa, "But the damage wasn't very bad then, and there were hero rescue specialists giving us instructions what to do."

"Well, your Quirk is really suited to this, Misa," said Shinsou, looking at her soberly, "You can phase in there and bring people out. I think you had better start right now and not wait for the rescue team. People could be dying under there."

She phased herself into the rubble, and she had hardly gone a few metres when she stumbled over someone.

It was a small girl. She emerged, carrying the girl, but when she saw the girl's face proper, crushed and bleeding, she realised she was dead.

She placed the body on the ground and went to one side and retched. Shinsou came over to comfort her.

"Don't bring any more bodies out," he said, "focus on saving those who are still alive."

She knew he was right. He handed her their flashlight and compass, which he had taken out of the car.

After she had gone in again, Shinsou turned to look at the townspeople. They seemed worried and subdued. There were two men standing near him, in particular, who appeared to be in total shock.

"Are the _shobo dan_ coming?" he asked them, referring to the volunteer emergency team that every town had.

"We are the _shobo dan_ ," said one of them, looking stricken, "at least, all that's left of it. The rest were all in the hotel. They were staying in the hotel because the fire service chief's daughter was getting married, and he booked rooms for all of us as a treat."

Shinsou was taken aback. "So that means the town's fire fighters were in the hotel too?"

"Yes, except for the few on standby," said the man, "They're on their way."

"You can call the fire fighters from the next town," said Shinsou, "My friend has gone in to see what people she can bring out. Prepare a place here for the injured to receive treatment, will you? Has the hospital been alerted?"

"Yes," they said, rousing and starting to get to work.

Shinsou suddenly realised that Misa would have trouble holding the compass and flashlight while carrying people as well. He managed to get one of the townspeople to give him a large trolley and a very long length of rope, and also asked one of the _shobo dan_ for a geophone.

Misa in the meantime had brought four people out. Two were badly injured, but the other two only had cuts and grazes. Ambulances began arriving after a while to bring the more seriously injured to the hospital. The townspeople also seemed to be organising themselves, bringing out their own first aid materials from their homes. Shinsou contributed the first aid kit from their car.

"It's hard to hold the flashlight and the compass and also carry people," Misa said, looking stressed.

"Here, take this trolley," said Shinsou, "You can put the injured on it. And tie this rope around your waist. I'll fasten the other end here. Then you won't need the compass, and you'll be able to find your way back."

She phased the trolley into the rubble, and managed to wheel five more people out by the time the two rescue heroes arrived.

"Who's that?" said one of them, looking startled as Misa emerged with yet another victim on her trolley.

"She has a permeation Quirk," explained Shinsou.

"Well, that's really useful," said the other hero in amazement, "Does she work for a rescue team? If not, we'd be glad to have her."

"I believe she's committed elsewhere at the moment," said Shinsou, as Misa came up to them.

"I'm ArcLight and this is Storm Chaser," the hero introduced himself, "We're going to remove the rubble at the periphery of the hotel first and get whatever people we can out. So, if you could concentrate on those areas deep under the ruins from now on, it would be good."

"I guess I missed out on rescue training, since I never went to hero school," said Misa, watching as the two hero specialists walked off.

"They're right, though," said Shinsou, "people deep under the rubble are usually the ones who need to be evacuated the most, especially if they've been badly injured or crushed. Do you know how to use the geophone? Otherwise to locate survivors in there, you can call out to them or beat on things that transmit sound easily, like water pipes."

It was a long and tiring night. There were a few aftershocks, but none as bad as the first tremor. Misa lost count of how many people the trolley had transported out. Shinsou forced her to rest every now and then. He had initially tied the other end of her rope to a lamp post, but that meant he had to keep an eye on it in case someone removed it. In the end he tied it around his own waist, and stationed himself at the triage. The doctor there was running low on painkillers and tranquilisers, and after seeing him calm one survivor down, kept asking him to brainwash those injured who seemed particularly in shock or in pain in order to calm them while waiting for the ambulance to return.

Toward the end of the night, Misa found, in the deepest part of the rubble, a short, elderly man whose leg had been crushed under a concrete beam. He seemed especially in distress. She phased him out, hoping that this wouldn't worsen his injury, and managed to get him onto the trolley.

The man was shivering violently. "I s-suffer from cl-claustrophobia," he told her. He had already been under the rubble for many hours.

"I'll get you out as soon as I can, sir," she assured him.

He seemed so distraught that she tried to calm him.

"Perhaps you could talk to me, sir," she said, "it might make you feel better."

"M-my name is F-Fujita," he said, still shaking violently, "I am the D-Director of the Saitama S-Seismological Research Institute."

He became even more upset.

"M-my s-staff were all in the h-hotel. This is t-terrible, terrible!"

Misa tried to change the subject.

"I've heard of your institute, sir," she said, "There is a rescue training centre attached to it, isn't there? Did you write some books? Maybe you could tell me about them."

"Y-yes, a few," said the little man, "The most popular w-were Fundamentals of Earthquakes and Seismology in Japan. Are you interested in s-seismology?"

"A little," said Misa.

"T-Thank you for saving me," he said. "You sh-should join our r-rescue centre. You have a wonderful ability. This is a p-perfect Quirk for earthquake rescue operations!"

He seemed to be trembling less. Misa tried to keep him talking.

"You must have studied many earthquakes … Kobe … and Tohoku …"

"Y-Yes, we've done a lot of research on those …" said Fujita, and he began talking about the papers he had published.

Misa was relieved when they finally came out.

"This is Professor Fujita," she said quietly, when she saw Shinsou, "His leg has been injured. He suffers from claustrophobia so it has been a bad experience for him … I don't know if you could help calm him a bit."

It was almost dawn when the remainder of the hero rescue team finally arrived. Shinsou could see that Misa was exhausted, and told her to rest.

"You saved a lot of people today, Misa," he said quietly, looking at her, "I'll acknowledge it, even if no one else has."

"Well, you helped me," she said, a little embarrassed, "you told me what to do, and got the trolley and rope for me."

"They're clearing things pretty fast, now," Shinsou said, "I think they can manage without you. The firefighters from the neighbouring towns have been helping for a while, too."

"Are we going back to our tree camp?" she asked.

"No," he said, "I managed to contact Aizawa. We might as well call it a day here. The laptop's broken, so we can't continue the monitoring; and our disguise kits were ruined by the rain. We had an extremely successful interview with Cyanide, and the samples we took from the laboratory are still intact, so I would classify this assignment a success."

They got into the car, and started for Tokyo. The rising sun was shining into the car, and Shinsou extracted a pair of sunglasses from the glove compartment. Misa tried not to stare at him too much.

"He's so hot," she thought, "Be still, my heart."

"You could sleep," said Shinsou, "You must be dead tired."

"I feel too tired to sleep," said Misa cryptically, and then added, "You know, sometimes I just feel that we're jinxed. It's true that we had a successful interview, but that storm wrecked our tree house, and then our hotel collapsed."

She wanted to add – And most of all, the earthquake interrupted our kiss!

But Shinsou just laughed.

"Things like that tend to happen, once you join the Directorate," he said comfortably, "It's a bit disruptive at times, but it does make life more interesting."


	21. Inashiki

**21 INASHIKI**

Aizawa was arranging the papers on his desk, at the same time glancing at Shinsou and Misa, seated in front of him. The former was relaxed as usual, leaning back in his seat, cool and self-assured. The latter was sitting upright in her chair, quiet and attentive. Aizawa found himself reflecting that, considering that Shinsou wasn't always the easiest of people to work with, the partnership had developed into a considerably more cohesive and effective team than he had expected.

"I would say we're managing to put together a reasonable picture of the cult leader and what his aims are," he said to them, "With his mind control, he is probably assembling quite a formidable force of bright minds and talent to serve him. The work the Stone Masons seem to be producing for him alone can testify to how effective this can be."

"Has there been any indication what other uses these minds are being put to, besides building?" asked Misa.

"We don't know yet," replied Aizawa, "Your interrogation of nine recruits wasn't a big enough sample size to tell us the entire range of professions he has been seeking out. He probably has some good scientists in those laboratories you observed which are producing nerve gas, and I would also expect him to target professionals dealing in warfare, since he is apparently building up an arsenal. And there were two geneticists alone among those you interviewed. Akahara appears to have an obsession with the Quirkless. I would hazard a guess that he wants to carry out experiments to genetically modify Quirkless individuals into Quirk-carrying ones."

"What was in those samples we collected from the laboratories?" asked Shinsou.

Aizawa pushed a paper forward.

"Tokoyami from Science and Technology sent me the test results yesterday," he said, "The cult appears to be involved in developing both Quirk-nullifying and Quirk-enhancing drugs. The nullifying drugs are not permanent … so far they're effective for about an hour before the Quirk can be activated again. The Quirk-enhancing drugs have been found to work reasonably well, but they only last for about half an hour."

He paused.

"The process in which Akahara uses his Quirk does not seem clear-cut," he commented, "the lower rung cult members sometimes seem incapable of thought, but the leaders appear to be able to think with some independence. Take the case of Graveyard. He lied to Cyanide about your intrusion at Kamone in order to keep his leadership position."

"It could be that different individuals respond differently to his brainwashing," said Shinsou.

"I've been hoping to find out that his mind control process is reversible," said Misa, "then there might still be some way those who have lost their memories could have them restored."

"We don't know if he irretrievably erases the memories of his victims, or if they are still there, only buried within the victim's consciousness," agreed Aizawa, "If it is the latter, then the consequences would be significant. There would be hope that his victims could be restored to their original selves."

"I wondered if he might be able to restore some independence of thought, especially to those cult members who have been identified to have leadership potential," said Misa, "People who can think originally might be more useful to him."

"The only way to find out would be to apprehend Akahara himself," remarked Shinsou.

"And I would hope to do that before long," said Aizawa, "Murders and abductions are still being carried out, and the media have been blowing the issue out of proportion. People are aware that the Quirkless are being targeted. Those without Quirks are fearful. The police are under pressure to provide a solution and some form of protection as well, but it's not possible to keep watch over every single Quirkless person in the country.

"And so the main thing we now want to know is where Akahara is. If you can go to Inashiki and interview Caligula to find that out, we might be able to start moving to dismantle the cult."

"There's another option," said Shinsou, "We could go back to Kamone and look for Citadel. assuming he's still working on the underground facility there. Wherever Akahara is, it's likely to be some major Hikari facility, and the Stone Masons are likely to have built it."

"It has been quite a few months, though, they might have completed the Kamone facility already," said Misa, "It's a pity we didn't manage to find out from Citadel, the other time."

Aizawa didn't seem so convinced.

"It's not a given that Akahara will be in a major facility," he said, "The Hikari leaders we've seen so far certainly lead a comfortable lifestyle, compared to the junior cult members who live underground, but Akahara may be clever enough to elude detection by doing something different … living in some poor and obscure place, for example.

"Although," he added drily, taking out a photograph from a folder, "the latest piece of information I've received from Group Delta does make it seem rather unlikely."

"What's that?" asked Shinsou, with interest.

The photograph was of a bright yellow Porsche.

"But … I thought Group Delta is dealing with the North Koreans," said Misa, hesitantly.

"They are," said Aizawa, "and Tomonaga asked me if I know anything about a group called Hikari. They say that the North Koreans have been giving money and other gifts to some organization called Hikari, the latest of which is this Porsche."

Shinsou's eyes flashed.

"The madman," he said, "he's trying to get nuclear weapons from them!"

"Well, we can't jump to conclusions, yet," said Aizawa, "They only seem to be making friendly overtures to one another at the moment. But for that reason it might be more useful for you to interrogate Caligula next, rather than Citadel. I doubt the latter knows anything more about Hikari than its buildings."

He paused, looking at them.

"I've sent Shinohara and Ishida to Inashiki. Once they've settled there and checked the place out a bit, I don't think we need to wait too long before the two of you go there."

.

.

Shinsou knocked on the door of Misa's small room on the top floor of the Directorate. He didn't expect it to open. She had made a peephole in the door by the simple method of phasing one of Magnetron's periscopes in, and once she saw him outside, her smiling face soon appeared through the door. Reaching out, she grasped his arm and phased him through into her room.

"You never do open doors, do you?" said Shinsou, smiling.

"I do, sometimes," she said, laughing, pleased to see him.

They had sensibly kept their relationship at work strictly platonic. They trained and sparred, met with Aizawa, and discussed work and the Hikari case just as they usually did. Even weekends were often taken up by work and training, or other matters. However, Shinsou had gotten into the habit of dropping by the top floor room in the evenings rather often once work was over, and it could be said that neither he nor Misa found it necessary to continue behaving platonically then.

"We've been training pretty hard," Shinsou now said, "I thought that, before going to Inashiki next week, we could take one night off and have dinner out."

Misa's face brightened.

"That sounds like a good idea," she said.

"And besides," he said, taking a small package out, "it's your birthday today."

She was surprised. "How did you know? I don't recall telling you."

He laughed. "I still have your stats page from the time I was sent to track you down in Iideyama, you know."

Misa was looking at the package in amazement. "You got me something!"

"Open it," said Shinsou.

The present was a locket.

"You can put someone's photo inside," said Shinsou, "Hideo's, or …"

"Yours," said Misa.

He smiled.

"Put a dress on for a change, and we'll go out for dinner," he said, "I've booked us a table at a restaurant."

Misa was looking rather worried.

"You know, Hitoshi-san, you don't have to always go to this trouble," she said, placing a hand lightly on his arm, "We never used to do these things much, back in Iideyama. I've hardly ever celebrated my birthday, and it's not something I expect to do."

There was a curious expression in his eyes as he looked at her.

"I know you haven't," he said, "That's why I wanted to."

She didn't quite understand, but she smiled, and turned back to the locket.

"It's beautiful," she said softly, and there was a slight catch in her voice, "I'll treasure it. Thank you."

"You can thank me better than that," he said.

She thought she would give him a quick kiss, but he held on to her, and the kiss lasted a great deal longer than she thought it would. She was breathless when he released her at last, and he was amused to see that she was blushing slightly.

"After dinner tonight, I thought we could go over to my place," he said, casually.

She smiled at him.

"I'd like that," she said shyly, and was vexed to find herself blushing again.

.

.

The layout of the Hikari house in Inashiki was similar to the earlier two that Misa and Shinsou had visited, in that it was located in large grounds and was not visible from the main road. It, too, contained an underground complex, where most of the cult members lived, while the higher-ranking members lived in the main house, above ground.

Inashiki was a city, and although the house was on the outskirts, there was not much forest present for Shinohara and Ishida to camp in. Since Aizawa had told them that they would not be there for long, they had solved the problem by driving there in a van, in which they could sleep and do the monitoring. They managed to park the van in various secluded places during the nights.

When Shinsou and Misa arrived, they swapped vehicles. The scouts handed the van over to them, and drove off in their car.

"What's the surveillance system like, there?" Shinsou asked, before the scouts went off.

"Rather similar to Ematsu," said Ishida, "They have cameras in the grounds and in the underground complex, but there's only one in the main house, outside a locked room. We couldn't get in to have a look. Otherwise if there were any other cameras for the main house, they must have been removed. I think the Hikari leaders find it irksome having their movements monitored."

"Good," said Shinsou, looking at Misa, "That makes it easier for us."

"The underground complex isn't as extensive as the others we've seen," added Ishida, "They're producing nerve gas and they have a number of drones there. There's also a laboratory. But they aren't storing weapons here. The complex is mostly being used to assemble computers, it seems."

"Computers?" said Shinsou.

"This place is a business centre for the cult," Shinohara said, and gave a small whistle, "That Caligula's a big-time businessman!"

"He can do the job," agreed Ishida, "Tall fellow, his face is like a gargoyle, but it doesn't matter. He speaks well and is persuasive. The cult has an office in the city where he meets clients. But he'll be leaving soon, apparently. He seems to be training Anthrax to take over."

"Leaving?" said Shinsou, "Where to?"

Ishida shrugged.

"We didn't manage to find that out," he said, "You can get him to disclose everything when you interrogate him."

"He's got a favourite housemaid who entertains him every night, though," remarked Shinohara, "you'll have to get rid of her if you want to interview him at night."

"Thanks," said Shinsou, drily.

"He's also got this unusual liking for sand art," said Ishida, "One of the cult members is a sand artist, and since we came, we noticed he gets her to create sand art for him every afternoon after lunch. The sand table is in the study."

"He does, does he?" said Shinsou, looking interested, "How long does that last?"

"About an hour," said Ishida, "from one to two every day. His routine is as regular as a clock."

"Is it?" said Shinsou, "What does he usually do after the sand art session?"

Shinohara gave a snort of laughter. "He naps for an hour."

"You can check out his Porsche too," added Ishida, as he and Shinohara got into the car to drive off, "He's got a flashy yellow one in the front porch."

.

.

The Inashiki house was an elegant one, consisting of two storeys, high-ceilinged and built in an open-concept contemporary style. It had timber strips for flooring, but the walls were made of stone. There was a second building next to it which contained a large hall with an auditorium. Shinsou guessed that this was where the initiation of the first-tier leaders had taken place.

They spent the rest of the day monitoring the house from the van. As the scouts had said, Caligula had the sand artist give him a session after lunch. Shinsou watched with interest.

"I think we can try interviewing him around this time, tomorrow," he said.

They went over to the house that night to get a feel of the place, and to have a look around. They located the locked room that Ishida had mentioned. It was securely locked and had a surveillance camera outside. When Misa cautiously phased herself in, bypassing the camera, she saw another camera inside, as well as a massive safe. There was a laser security system in the room as well. She phased herself and Shinsou into the room below and then moved upwards so that they surfaced inside the safe. The flashlight revealed a large pile of cash in US dollars, as well as gold.

"Their businesses must be doing well," said Shinsou, astonished, "I would estimate there must be a few million dollars in here."

They took a few photos for the record, and then left the room and went over to the study where the sand art table was. Besides bookcases, it contained a number of cabinets, and after moving some of its contents elsewhere, they found one large enough for them to hide in. Shinsou also noted that there was a telephone on the table.

The next day, they went over around lunch time to hang around and wait for the sand art session. Anthrax and Despair were having lunch with Caligula in the dining room, and Shinsou noticed that someone had left a cell phone on the coffee table in the living room.

"Misa," he whispered, "Can you phase over there and get us that cell phone?"

She did as he asked, and when she had gotten hold of it, he said, "Let's go to the study. I think we might as well wait there for Caligula."

When they reached the study, Shinsou picked up the study table phone and dialled a number. He then called someone in the Directorate on his cell phone.

"What are you doing?" asked Misa, as he ended the call.

"I've just gotten someone at the Directorate to tell me what the study table phone number is," he said, "I'd rather not use my own phone for that. I'm going to use our stolen phone to brainwash Caligula later."

"Will that work?" asked Misa, "Brainwashing over the phone, I mean."

"It isn't really over the phone," Shinsou explained, "I'll still be in the same room as him, after all."

They hid themselves in the cabinet and waited. Presently, Caligula came into the study with Anthrax.

"Where's Despair?" Caligula was asking.

"He's looking for his cell phone," said Anthrax, "he seems to have misplaced it."

"Well, tell him that you and he will be doing cleansing during the next few nights," said Caligula, looking through a folder and then taking a piece of paper from it and handing it to Anthrax, "The list just came in from headquarters."

Anthrax took the list and nodded.

"This should keep us busy for most of tonight," he said, "We won't join you for dinner, then."

Misa felt rather tense. She guessed that the list contained the names and addresses of Quirkless people, and that the villains were going to murder them that night.

Anthrax left the room. Shinsou was about to call the study phone using Despair's phone, but Caligula had already picked up the receiver and was dialling a number.

"Hello," he said, "Hasegawa, is that you? I've been trying to get hold of Obsidian all morning. His phone appears to have been switched off. Is he there?"

There was a pause, as Citadel went off to look for Obsidian. After what seemed a long while, the latter came on the line.

"Hello, Hatano?" said Caligula, "I've been trying to contact you urgently. Akahara wants us to discuss something important. I'm going to need you to come down here later today."

There was a pause, and then he said, "No, it can't be done over the phone. I know it's a long way to travel, but it's urgent. … No, it can't wait till tomorrow. It has to do with the tunnel ceiling collapsing."

There was another pause, and then Caligula said, "No, it hasn't collapsed yet. But I need to talk to you before it does. I have Akahara breathing down my neck about this. No, he specifically asked I see you, not Citadel. You can leave Kamone for a short while and let Citadel take care of things there."

Another pause, and then Caligula looked pleased. "Good, see you tonight, then. Yes, don't worry, even arriving around nine or ten will be fine." He put the phone down.

Shinsou quickly dialled the number. The study phone rang, and Caligula picked it up.

"Hello," said Shinsou quietly into the phone, before Caligula could speak.

"Hello?" said Caligula. His face became blank.

"When the sand artist comes, tell her to come back an hour later," said Shinsou, "Say yes if you heard me."

"Yes," said Caligula.

"Put the phone down, then," said Shinsou, "Leave it off the hook." He didn't want any more calls to come in.

Caligula put the phone down.

A few minutes later, the sand artist arrived. Caligula promptly carried out Shinsou's instructions.

"Return Despair's phone to somewhere in the living room, will you?" Shinsou said quietly to Misa, as they both emerged from the cabinet. He started setting up the recording equipment.

Misa disposed of the phone, and then came back to the study to find that Shinsou had already started the interview. Although she knew it was unlikely anyone would disturb Caligula during his sand art time, she stationed herself near the study door to keep watch.

"Our cooperation with the North Koreans is at the very initial stage," Caligula was saying, "We're going to see what they want from us, first. Of course, they'll be happy for any excuse to destabilise Japan. We don't need to deal with them only, there are other places where one can get nuclear weapons."

Shinsou frowned.

"Does it not trouble you that you are betraying your own country," he said.

"The notion of country will become irrelevant in the coming new order," said Caligula, "all that matters will be whether you are in Hikari or not."

"Is that Porsche outside a gift from the North Koreans?" asked Shinsou.

"Indeed yes," said Caligula, "We at Inashiki are the main contact within Hikari for corresponding with them. The car is the latest in a series of friendly overtures we've received from them. They seem keen to establish ties with us."

"Tell me about Hikari's other operations here at Inashiki," said Shinsou.

"We are the main business centre for the movement," said Caligula, "We reap good profits because the cult members work for free. Last year, we generated over a billion yen by selling cut-price computers assembled by our unsalaried cult members."

"And you're the one running things here?" said Shinsou.

"Yes," said Caligula, "I have lots of ideas. For example, there are plans to start a pop band to subtly introduce our beliefs to people, with songs written by Akahara himself. But I shall not be here long. Akahara has chosen me to be one of his advisors, and next week I shall be moving over to Headquarters while Anthrax takes over here."

"And where are Hikari's headquarters?" asked Shinsou, looking intently at him.

"At Mt Aino," said Caligula, "In Minami Alps National Park."

"That's protected land," said Shinsou, astonished, "how is it possible for Hikari to have built a habitation there?"

"The building is two thousand feet underground," said Caligula, "It is completely hidden. It cannot be seen from the surface."

"How did Hikari manage to build this without being detected?" asked Shinsou.

"The Stone Masons did it," answered Caligula, "They tunnelled all the way there from Hirogawara. We have a house in Hirogawara, far in from the road. No one outside could tell that something was being built, except that trucks and equipment kept going in and out of the house. It was remote enough that no one took any notice of the activity."

"Tell me more about the Mt Aino headquarters, then," said Shinsou.

"I only know that it is underground," said Caligula, "I have never been there yet, although I have been in close contact with the Enlightened One, and he has been giving me instructions to liaise with the Stone Masons about repairing some of the facilities there."

"Who in Inashiki would have details of the Mt Aino base, then?" asked Shinsou.

"No one," said Caligula, "It is a secret location, even within Hikari. Even many of the first-tier leaders do not know about it."

"Well, what about that Stone Mason who is coming tonight," said Shinsou, "Obsidian. Would he know about it?"

"Definitely," said Caligula, "He was one of the main architects working on it."

Shinsou quizzed Caligula further, trying to find out more about Akahara and his Quirk, but didn't find out anything more useful than what Cyanide had told them. He did, however, manage to get Caligula to write down a list of the names of all of Akahara's advisors at Mt Aino, together with details of their Quirks. When the hour was almost up, he made Caligula set his watch time back an hour, and turned the hands of the wall clock back an hour as well. He then woke Caligula up as Misa phased the both of them out of the room.

"The sand art presentation seems to be such a big part of his day that it would simply have been too jarring for him if he were to miss it," he later said to Misa, "He won't notice anything is wrong at first, and hopefully when he finds out the real time, he'll just be confused but won't be able to discover what really happened."

"So, we're going back tonight to interview this Obsidian?" said Misa.

"Yes, and it's a stroke of luck that he's coming," said Shinsou, "Otherwise we'd have to go all the way back to Kamone to get hold of him or Citadel."


	22. Obsidian

**22 OBSIDIAN**

Obsidian arrived at the Inashiki house around ten that evening, and Misa and Shinsou recognised him as the man who had come through the basement tunnel in Kamone looking for Citadel. He appeared to be in his thirties. He was a quiet-spoken and serious-looking man of medium height who wore glasses, and he looked tired.

Caligula made him sit down to a late dinner, since he had not eaten yet. "I appreciate you coming, Hatano. I know you're in a hurry to get back and don't want to stay the night, so we can talk while you eat."

"Perhaps we could have talked over the phone," replied Obsidian, "or Citadel could have come, instead. After all, he's the one in charge of the Stone Masons."

"Citadel is too airy-fairy," said Caligula, "He's good at running things, but when it comes to technical details, I've learned that it's better to talk to you. I've been informed that there's some danger of rockfall in one of the tunnels at Mt Aino. We want to know if it isn't possible to permanently station some of the Stone Masons at the base so that they can do repairs immediately."

"We don't have the manpower to provide it, at the moment," said Obsidian, "since you want the underground facility at Kamone finished quickly. If you could delay the deadline for that, we might be able to spare some people. It's either that or increase our numbers. I did ask you to step up recruitment of people."

"We would need you to assess them before we recruit them," said Caligula.

"Well, we don't have time to do that either, if you want us to keep to the current deadline," said Obsidian, wearily.

"Another thing we want is to have an alternative underground tunnel through which members can walk between the two bases," said Caligula, "If the road becomes blocked, there's no way to get from one base to another except above ground."

Obsidian looked slightly exasperated.

"We suggested that earlier but Akahara rejected the idea because it would have delayed the project, and he wanted the base finished quickly."

"Yes, well, he wants it now," said Caligula, "How long do you think it will take to build and how much will it cost?"

They went off into a detailed discussion. Shinsou whispered to Misa, "That's no good. He's going to run off and leave right after this. We've got to find some way to stop him, or we'll have to go all the way back to Kamone."

"Perhaps we could hide in his car," Misa whispered back.

Obsidian got up to leave once he had finished eating. Misa could tell by the disgruntled expression on his face that he thought the entire conversation could have been carried out over the phone. She and Shinsou were about to make their way to his car when they heard him say, "There's no need to see me out. I just need to use the study for a while and make a call to Citadel, and then I'll let myself out."

"I forget you have the keys to every one of our establishments," said Caligula, "If you say so, then. I shall retire for the night." He was evidently in a hurry to get back together with his housemaid.

"Misa, get me something from the kitchen or laundry, quick," whispered Shinsou, "Anything will do. I'll corner him in the study. I just need to have an excuse to make him say one word to me."

One of the servants was washing dishes in the kitchen, so Misa went over to the laundry area instead. She resurfaced near the study with a small basket of folded laundry. "Is this all right?"

They waited till Caligula had settled himself in his bedroom with his housemaid and Obsidian seemed to be finishing his call. The entire house was quiet; Anthrax and Despair had left to execute the cleansing, and everyone else had gone to bed.

Misa phased herself into the study cabinet. Shinsou, who had disguised himself and put on a cult servant's uniform, knocked on the door. He heard Obsidian's voice. "Come in."

The Stone Mason was sitting near the sand table when he entered.

"I've brought your laundry back, sir," said Shinsou.

Obsidian looked surprised.

"Isn't it a bit late for you to be doing this?" he asked, "And I just came this evening and am leaving soon – I don't have any laundry."

Shinsou was trying to exert his will on him, but it didn't seem to be working. He tried again.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said, "there must be some mistake, then."

Obsidian was looking curiously at him.

"I thought I knew all the servants here, but I don't recognise you," he said, "Are you new?"

"Yes," said Shinsou.

He was feeling nonplussed. I can't seem to brainwash this guy, he thought.

Obsidian was regarding him with interest. "Let me see your Hikari flame."

Shinsou went over to the sand table, and pushed his sleeve up.

Obsidian examined the tattoo, and then stepped back, his face impassive. All of a sudden, the rocky walls of the room began to contort and move. They rushed inward, as if to crush Shinsou. The latter's whip flashed out, the thongs wrapping themselves tightly around Obsidian.

"Make the walls retreat," said Shinsou, coldly. He pulled the whip tighter, so that the Stone Mason had difficulty breathing.

"Your whip is of no use," Obsidian whispered. His body began to change, darkening and becoming fluid and glasslike. He flowed out of the thongs, and resumed his form, several feet away.

Misa, however, had come out of hiding. She phased effortlessly through the rock, grasped Shinsou by the arm, and began phasing them out of the room.

"Stop!" said Obsidian, "Come back. You want something, don't you? If you're who I think you are, I'm willing to help you."

The rock walls were now retreating rapidly. In a flash, they had resumed their original positions, and the room appeared just as it was before.

Obsidian was looking at them speculatively.

"I heard that in Kamone some intruders broke into our premises and killed Carousel," he said, "They were hooded, but one was dressed as a servant from the house, and they were able to phase through solid objects."

Shinsou and Misa were staring at him.

"You're intelligence agents, aren't you?" said Obsidian.

Shinsou ignored the question. "What did you see wrong in the tattoo?"

"Your flame isn't the genuine Hikari one," said Obsidian, "it's a good likeness, but if you look closely, you can tell it's been imprinted differently.

"Before you say anything," he quickly added, "Let me tell you that mine isn't real, either." He displayed his own tattoo. "I went without one, initially, but it posed some trouble because I had to work with Hikari members on various building projects, and so to save myself having to continually answer questions, I had one imprinted."

Shinsou eyed him warily.

"You're not a Hikari member?" he said, "Why are you working for them, then?"

Obsidian was looking intently at him. "Are you an intelligence agent?"

"What makes you think that?" asked Shinsou.

"You're not denying it," said Obsidian, "So I assume you are." He paused. "I met an intelligence agent once, when I first went to Kamone to inspect the house there. He had been using a false name, but he told me his real name was Shibata."

Shinsou kept his face expressionless.

"I check out the prisoners, whenever I visit any Hikari site, to see if I can help them," continued Obsidian, "I'm considered part of the first-tier leadership, so I can access them easily. If one intelligence agent failed, I assumed others would be sent. I'd been hoping to meet another one."

He shot Shinsou a keen look.

"In case you're interested to know," he said, "Shibata didn't tell me who he was working for. He was dying when I met him, and was no longer in his right mind. He gave me his address, and asked me to say goodbye to his family. I did as he asked, and his wife in her distress let slip that he was an agent from the Directorate."

Shinsou said quietly, "Why are you telling us this?"

"Because I am assuming that you want to overthrow Akahara," answered Obsidian, "And if you've come to me for help, I'm willing to help you."

Shinsou gave a short laugh.

"You just attacked us," he said, "and now you expect us to trust you."

"I had to test you, to find out who you are," replied Obsidian, "If you had been nothing more than a harmless servant, I wouldn't have hurt you. You're more than that, it seems."

"How do we know you're not an agent planted by Akahara?" demanded Shinsou, "He must have brainwashed you, similar to all the other cult members."

"He tried to," said Obsidian, "He came to my firm and tried headhunting me, and when I refused, he tried exerting his mental powers on me. But they didn't work. I don't know why, myself."

He lifted his hand and looked thoughtfully at it. It changed appearance, becoming black and hard. "It could be because, as you saw, I am actually made of stone, and the particular stone I am made of blocks off psychic attacks."

The blackness began to spread from his hand to the rest of his body, until he stood looking at them, all black and hard and glasslike, a man of stone.

"But if you are against Akahara," said Shinsou, "why are you helping him?"

Obsidian was resuming his original human form, and when he answered, his expression was bitter. "Because, when he found out he couldn't brainwash me, he abducted my fiancée."

He looked over at the sand table, and the sand began to lift and swirl around in the air. The grains floated up and came together in midair, forming the face of a woman.

He regarded the woman's face for a few moments, his face emotionless. "I haven't seen her for six years, now. I don't know if she's alive or dead. But I keep on going, hoping that if I do what he wants, she'll eventually be returned to me, some day."

He turned to Shinsou.

"You want something from me, don't you?" he said.

Shinsou hesitated. He looked at Misa. She was hooded, so he couldn't see her expression, but when she saw him looking at her, she said quietly, "I don't know why, but I trust him."

Shinsou regarded her with amusement. "I might have guessed you would."

"Why would Akahara choose him to try to trap us?" persisted Misa in an undertone, trying not to let Obsidian hear, "He was hired for building things!"

"Akahara doesn't have to specifically ask him to trap us," said Shinsou, "He has imprinted into all the cultists' minds that they are to counter anything that might be a threat to the cult."

"But some of it is true," whispered Misa, turning her back to Obsidian and facing Shinsou so that the former wouldn't hear, "You couldn't brainwash him, could you? That means Akahara probably couldn't, either. So he's free from his influence."

"He may not have been brainwashed, but he could be serving Akahara out of his own free will," retorted Shinsou, "How do we know all that folderol about his fiancée is true? He's trying to trap us into revealing our motives and strategy!"

Obsidian had been standing next to the sand table, a half-smile on his face, listening to whatever he could catch of the conversation. He now went over to one of the cupboards in the room, and was taking out pen and paper.

Shinsou took his phone out. "There's one way to find out if he's telling the truth. I could get Aizawa to check with Shibata's wife."

"It's late," murmured Misa.

"It's a quarter past eleven, still tolerable," said Shinsou. He managed to make the call, after which he and Misa went over to see what Obsidian was doing.

"I would hazard a guess that you want to know about the Mt Aino facility," Obsidian said, when he saw them coming over, "If someone wanted to capture Akahara, they would want to go over to where he is, and the only reason I can think that anyone might want to search me out is to find out details of the buildings."

There were two finished drawings already lying on the table. He was sketching, with a steady hand, a third drawing which looked like the floor plan for the base, in clear, flowing strokes.

"You know," said Shinsou, picking one drawing up and examining it, "If I find out in the end that you're telling the truth, I can only say that I think we could learn to like you a lot."

Obsidian smiled.

"The entrance starts from this house in Hirogawara," he said, pointing to one of the finished sketches, "Behind the house is a warehouse built into the side of a hill. At the back of the warehouse is a long tunnel with a road leading under the mountains, ninety kilometres, to Mt Aino.

"The Hikari main base is two thousand feet under the mountain," he continued, referring to a second drawing, "Akahara believes there will be a nuclear war, and we were given instructions to construct something that would protect the cult from that. The complex has blast doors, and it lies on a system of giant springs and flexible pipe connectors which will prevent shifting in the event of an earthquake or an explosion."

Shinsou's phone vibrated. He excused himself and went off to a corner of the room to answer the call, then came back.

"Very well," he said, looking at Obsidian, "My colleague managed to contact Shibata's wife. She said you visited her, but that she never told us. You've been vindicated. And I apologise, for doubting you."

"Not at all," said Obsidian politely, "You were quite right in being careful."

He brought forward the final drawing to show them.

"The facility is made up of eleven three-storey buildings," he said, "comprising kitchens, dormitories for the Hikari members, an operations centre, sickbay, warehouse, propaganda producing plant, and one six-storey building for Akahara's own living quarters which we call the Lodge. There's also a power generation plant, fire station and water treatment facilities. Each building is colour coded."

They bent over the table to look. It was the most detailed drawing yet, and Obsidian was still adding the finishing touches to it as he spoke.

"I'm surprised there are no weapons being produced or stored there," said Shinsou.

"Mt Aino is meant to be a command and control centre," explained Obsidian, "there are some buildings still empty there, to serve this purpose in the future. But the military bases Akahara wants to build will be elsewhere. One is to be at Kamone. Akahara recently got the notion that having a military facility in Kyoto Prefecture is a prudent idea because the Allies didn't bomb Kyoto during the Second World War."

He pointed to one part of the floor plan.

"When you arrive using the road from Hirogawara, you'll see a large carpark, and doors opening out from the warehouse. The different buildings are connected, and are accessed by security cards. Hikari members are only assigned cards that give them access to their dormitories and their respective work areas. Most members will have access cards for common areas like the dormitory buildings, sickbay, laundry and dining hall. Certain areas such as the operations centre are off limits. There are sentries patrolling all the buildings, and they have cards for the buildings they were assigned to patrol."

"They use biometrics, nowadays," commented Shinsou.

"We suggested that, but Akahara didn't want it," said Obsidian, "He didn't want his own or the other cult members' traits recorded down."

"With me to phase us around, we wouldn't need to bother much about access cards," Misa said, looking at Shinsou.

"We might have to split up and do different things while we're there," Shinsou pointed out.

"You can have my access card," said Obsidian, pausing in his drawing. He took a card from his wallet and gave it to Shinsou. "It's a master access card. It'll allow you access anywhere, to every single building."

Shinsou accepted the card as if it was made of gold.

"But be careful though, if you use it too often, Madrigal might notice," added Obsidian, resuming his drawing.

"Madrigal?" said Shinsou.

"She has the head of a nightingale," said Obsidian, "I believe her name implies many different voices can be joined together to form a single song. Similarly, all the different operations in the base come together to make the underground city run."

The sand in the sand table rose up, forming an image of Madrigal for them to see.

"What's her real name?" asked Shinsou.

"Aika Inoue," answered Obsidian, "She sits in the operations centre all day and monitors the entire facility. She has other staff in the centre helping her, of course, but she's the main person in charge of running the daily operations of the base. She can see which cards are being used to gain access through which doors. She doesn't just oversee the computer systems but everything else as well – the power generation for the base, the water supply, heating and cooling systems and communications system."

"I must find a way to talk to her," said Shinsou, his eyes gleaming.

"You should," agreed Obsidian, "If you plan to have many people from your side enter the base, it would be useful if you could persuade her to provide you with several more master access cards. And she can issue you mobile phones as well, if you need them. Your cell phone won't work there. The base has its own dedicated communications system."

"What's she like?" asked Shinsou.

"Obsessive," said Obsidian drily, "Akahara headhunted her because her Quirk gives her remarkably good organisational capabilities. But what he doesn't realise is that she is a control freak. We had to work with her when we were designing the facility, and she insisted she not only be in charge of the computer centre, but everything else as well. It's more than a single person can handle."

"So she's loyal to Akahara?" said Shinsou.

"He has used his mental powers on her," said Obsidian, "but it's hard to say if she qualifies as a first-tier leader. She's always in the ops centre and doesn't associate with Akahara in the same way the other first-tier leaders do. People like Iron Grip, and so on. They normally dine with Akahara, and there are bedrooms in his quarters reserved for them."

He brought a map out.

"Just to let you know, there's a second smaller base, further south of the main one, just here," he told them, pointing it out on the map, "It was meant as a backup, should the main base ever fall. I won't draw the floor plan for it, since your primary objective is the main building where Akahara is. I've not been there since we finished constructing it, and Citadel has taken charge of it since, so I can't give you too many details about the facilities there. But I would imagine they contain at least laboratories, and a factory for biological and chemical weapons. Those are absent in the main base, and it's similar to what is found in the other Hikari establishments."

"Is that what you and Caligula were talking about, during dinner?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes," said Obsidian, "The Mt Aino bases were our most significant projects, because they were so expensive and also so technically challenging. But because they were going to be Akahara's headquarters, he was quite demanding and gave us an unreasonably tight deadline. So there were some design flaws. Currently the Hikari members usually travel between the two bases using the same underground road that comes from Hirogawara. If the road is closed, the members have to travel above ground, which is unacceptable to the leadership because the bases are supposed to be secret."

There was a knock at the door. Shinsou and Misa hastily concealed themselves.

"Are you still here?" They heard Caligula's voice outside, "I thought I heard you talking. What was all that, then, about being in a hurry to leave?"

"I was having a long talk with Citadel on the phone," Obsidian answered, opening the door, "I'll be leaving immediately."

Shinsou and Misa re-emerged once Caligula had left. Obsidian gave them the final completed drawing.

"We appreciate this," said Shinsou, accepting it gratefully. "What is your fiancée's name? We'll keep an eye out for her, from now on."

"Michelle Honda," said Obsidian, glancing at Misa. She had been largely silent, quietly listening while Shinsou did most of the talking. Now, however, she spoke up.

"It must have been hard for you, these past six years," she said, gently.

Obsidian turned to her.

"I would like to see your face," he said.

Misa glanced at Shinsou, who hesitated, then slowly nodded. She removed her hood.

Obsidian regarded her steadily, his expression unreadable.

"You resemble her, actually," he said at last, almost as if he was talking to himself, "especially your voice."

Misa thought she could see the sadness in his eyes.

"If we can, we'll try to find her for you," she said.

"I don't think she's at Mt Aino," said Obsidian, "I look for her, every time I go there. Just as I look for her every time I visit any Hikari site."

"I doubt Akahara would let you find her that easily," said Shinsou, "but with the help you gave us today, we might be able to take the cult down, and I assure you, we'll do whatever we can after that to locate her for you."

"That's why I'm helping you," answered Obsidian. His eyes were still on Misa, and he did not attempt to conceal the sadness in his face, this time.


	23. The Final Flight

**23 THE FINAL FLIGHT**

Shinsou had wanted to question Obsidian further, but the latter was afraid Caligula would come back and check on him again and become suspicious, and he was also in a hurry to return to Kamone.

Misa and Shinsou stayed on in the study for a few minutes after the Stone Mason had taken his leave. They switched the study lights off and placed their hoods back on, but took a flashlight out to examine the sketches and floor plan.

"That turned out better than expected," said Shinsou, "The thing about brainwashing is that you have to know the right questions to ask. Sometimes, if you have someone willing to talk, they divulge things you don't expect to hear."

Misa was admiring the drawings. "They're beautiful."

"More importantly, they're useful," said Shinsou. He placed them carefully in a folder, and tucked them away in Misa's bag.

"It's interesting, Akahara didn't manage to brainwash him," said Misa.

"Yes, but his case would be one in a million, unfortunately," replied Shinsou. He paused, then said, "So Shibata's dead."

"It's terrible," said Misa, "This cult has destroyed so many people's lives. I hope we can at least find Obsidian's fiancée, and restore her to him, safe and sound."

She waited for Shinsou to reply to this, but he remained silent.

"Don't you agree?" she asked, after a while.

"Well, it might be better if we didn't, you know," said Shinsou reluctantly, "If she has lost her mind and doesn't know him, what kind of life would they have? He would never leave her, and he would have to live with the pain for the rest of his life ..."

He stopped, because he knew how negative he was sounding.

"If she has lost her memories of him, they could get to know one another again," said Misa, trying to be optimistic. She changed the subject. "What shall we do now?"

"I want to take a few photos of the facilities for the record," said Shinsou, "especially those drones. I haven't seen them in any Hikari facility before. And get some samples of the substances they're producing in the labs. Then I would say we're done for the night."

They went down to the laboratory and obtained the photographs and samples without any mishap. Misa then phased them back outside, and they emerged near the porch, where several cars were parked.

"What's the matter?" said Shinsou, "you've stopped phasing."

Misa suddenly found herself totally and inexplicably consumed by anger. She reeled backward, overcome by the force of the emotion. She could see someone right next to her, hooded. She couldn't see his face and didn't know who he was, but she knew she had to kill him. She whipped out her knife, and lunged at him.

He was faster and stronger than her. With one blow, he sent the knife spinning to the floor. Forgetting all her combat training, she threw herself at him, her hands going around his neck to choke the life out of him.

He twisted her arms downward so that she cried out in pain. Holding her arms with one hand, he pinned her to one side. She was still struggling. As if in slow motion, she saw him bend down and pick up her knife.

She thought he would stab her with it. But instead, he suddenly jerked her roughly to one side, as if moving her out of the way, and threw the knife, fast and hard, at something behind her. She suddenly felt a sharp, terrible pain in her shoulder.

Her mind suddenly cleared. She lay against her opponent, eyes closed, hardly able to think because of the pain. Who am I leaning against, she wondered. Opening her eyes with an effort, she realised it was Shinsou.

"What … ?" she whispered.

"Despair," he said grimly, "he was manipulating your feelings."

Misa lifted herself slightly, and turning, saw, several feet away, the body of a large man lying on the ground, clad in black.

"It looks as if he can only manipulate one person at a time," said Shinsou, "It was bad timing, we should have been more careful. He must have come along just as we phased out." He was swiftly getting her first aid things out of her bag. "Let me have a look at that wound."

"Someone might have heard us," said Misa faintly, "I think we should get out of here first."

"I'll be done soon," said Shinsou. There was a knife protruding from her shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't pull you away fast enough. Hold still, this might hurt a bit." He pulled the knife out, and blood spurted out. The wound did not look pleasant, but it did not look too deep. He bound it up as well as he could. "Are you in a lot of pain?"

"I'm all right," she said, untruthfully. "I can still phase enough to get us out of here."

"I want to get you to a hospital," said Shinsou, "There's no time to go back to our van. Let me see if I can get the Porsche running. Are you able to phase a Porsche?"

"I think so," she said, looking rather pale, "after Kamone, Radon had me try out phasing many different types of vehicles … including a sports car."

She phased them into the Porsche, bypassing the locked doors. Shinsou made her as comfortable in the front passenger seat as he could, pushing the seat back. The Porsche, although new, was an older model. He managed to hotwire it, and got the engine running. He set up the GPS for the hospital.

"There are hospitals in Inashiki, but they may follow us there," he said, "Anthrax may be about somewhere and discover the body soon, if he returned together with Despair. I'll get us to the nearest hospital in Tokyo. If they come after us, we should be able to give them the slip, because we'll be phasing through the traffic and they'll be unable to follow. We can be there in less than an hour, half an hour even, since this car should be fast. Is that all right?"

"Yes," said Misa, faintly.

"Ready?" he said to her. She nodded. "Let's go."

The car shot off, and although she had closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on phasing, she could feel its wonderful speed.

It was the middle of the night, so there was little traffic until they reached the highway. Shinsou discovered that phasing the car down the road didn't cause too much disruption so long as he was going in the same direction as the rest of the traffic. The other cars didn't notice him coming from behind, and he passed through them so fast that they hardly knew what had happened. The Porsche shot down the highway, passing through all the other cars.

Misa had removed her hood, saying she found it easier to breathe without it. She seemed curiously listless.

"Feeling all right?" Shinsou asked.

She didn't want to worry him.

"Yes," she replied, with an effort.

It was beginning to rain. Shinsou continued to step hard on the accelerator. He looked at Misa now and then. She was staring out into the darkness.

Something's wrong, he thought. After about fifteen minutes, he said, "I'm stopping at a police station … I want to see if there's a hospital that's nearer."

He drove the entire Porsche into the police station. There was only one officer on night duty, who looked overwhelmed to see a car, driven by a hooded man, pulling up right in front of the counter.

"Good evening," said Shinsou.

The policeman had drawn his gun out.

"Who – " he said, and then his face went blank.

After some conversation with the officer, Shinsou figured the Tokyo hospital was still his best bet.

There was a large window just next to the police station counter. He happened to glance out, and stopped short.

He could see small, faint lights in the sky, visible through the rain, approaching from the same direction from which they had come.

Drones? Carrying … nerve gas? Or am I imagining it …

His mind raced.

"They would have discovered they couldn't follow us because we phased through the traffic," he reasoned. "Their only choice would be those drones. But how could they know where we are? … Unless … there's some sort of signal coming from the Porsche that they're homing in on."

He felt it was most likely the GPS, but he couldn't be sure if there was something else in the car. He looked around. He didn't have time to take the entire car apart. He looked out the window again. The lights were definitely nearer. He couldn't wait till they had arrived to figure out if they were really after the Porsche or not.

He had to get rid of the car.

He turned to the police officer. "Tell me where the nearest large, open area is, where not many people are to be found."

"Mizuno Park is a few kilometres down," said the officer, "Straight down and it'll be on your left."

He checked that Misa was still able to phase the car. She nodded. The car shot out of the police station and turned back into the road. Several cars screeched to a halt, but Shinsou ignored them and raced off. He found the park in a few minutes. To his relief, it was large, stretching off as far as he could see into the darkness, and looked deserted; no one was venturing abroad in the rain. Even better – for he was not going to be able to phase the car himself – the first section of the park was a broad swathe of open grassland.

There was only one other car nearby at the entrance of the park, which contained a couple making out. Shinsou helped Misa, together with their belongings, out of the Porsche into one of the small pavilions that littered the park.

"Wait here for me," he told her, "I'll be back soon."

There was no time left. He drove the car across the grassland, and then, judging the speed to be about right, opened the door and flung himself out into the rain.

He rolled over several times, before coming to a halt. Turning, he saw the car still racing off into the distance, the door hanging open. He got to his feet and ran.

The drones were passing over him. He thought he counted about eight. He continued running back to the park entrance, and then turned back. Faint explosions could be heard in the distance, and he saw several flashes of light.

Misa looked as if she was sleeping. Shinsou roused her. "How are you feeling?"

Her breathing seemed rather laboured. "I've been having blurred vision for a while," she said faintly.

Shinsou ran over to the car with the couple. The car was a Mazda Axela. He opened the car door, and switched the overhead light on.

"Sorry to intrude," he said to the couple, and then he thought he recognised the man.

"Neito Monoma, from UA," he thought, "What the hell is he doing here?"

He did not particularly like Monoma. The latter had once tried to brainwash him after copying his Quirk.

A few minutes later, Shinsou and Misa were racing off in the Mazda. Monoma and his lady friend were sitting blank-faced, in the pavilion. Shinsou had been tempted to leave Monoma there in his birthday suit, but had finally instructed the both of them to put their clothes back on.

The Mazda was not as powerful as the Porsche, but it was making good time.

"Twenty minutes," thought Shinsou. He had let Misa lie down on the back seat. She had her eyes closed, putting all her energy into just staying conscious and phasing the car.

They exited the highway, and entered the city area. After another five minutes, Shinsou thought he could hear her saying something faintly from the back.

He turned his head. "What is it?"

"Stop," whispered Misa, "Stop the car. Right now."

Shinsou gritted his teeth and jammed hard on the brakes. There was a screeching noise, but before the car had come to total halt, Misa stopped phasing. The car careened down the road a little way, tyres still screeching, and smashed into a car in front of them.

Shinsou swore under his breath, and looked around. Miraculously, the Mazda was intact except for the bonnet, which had crumpled up, and there was no fire. He turned back to check on Misa.

She had not been flung onto the floor, but was still lying on the back seat. She was trying not to cry. Her breathing was laboured, and she was sweating profusely.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, tears streaking her face, "I can't … I just can't …"

"It's all right," he said softly. He touched her face, gently wiping away the tears. "Give me a couple of minutes. I'll get us there."

"My body feels numb," she murmured.

In a flash, Shinsou suddenly realised that the knife blade had been poisoned. He felt a surge of despair as he realised that she was dying.

He took his hood off and got out of the car in the rain. Traffic was piling up behind them, but there was heavy congestion in front as well, and with a sinking feeling he realised that any ambulance was going to take a long time to get through.

He looked at the car they had crashed into, and realised that it was a police car. A police officer was walking towards him.

"I'm sorry about the crash," called Shinsou, as the officer approached, "I was in a hurry … I've got a badly injured person here. How far is it to the nearest hospital?"

"About ten miles." The police officer was looking irate.

"Can you get us an ambulance?"

"I'll try," he said, "But I'll have to warn you, it's going to take a long time to get through. There's a pile-up two miles down, that's what's causing this jam."

Shinsou's eyes wandered over the stationary traffic. Even if I brainwash another driver into bringing us to the hospital, he thought, without Misa's phasing ability, there's no way we're going anywhere.

He said to the police officer, "Are there any officers around on motorcycles? We could ride pillion ..."

"I'm sorry," said the officer, "but it's against our regulations to do that. If you fall off and get even more badly injured, we'll be responsible – "

Shinsou's eyes were beginning to look dangerous.

"There's someone dying here," he said, with an edge to his voice.

"I'm sorry, sir," said the officer again, "But we can't. I can tell you, we get requests like this all the time. Pregnant women, and so on. We have to refuse them. Some of them even ask to use the patrol helicopter … "

He saw the expression on Shinsou's face, and stopped.

"Helicopter?" Shinsou said slowly. He suddenly felt hope dawning within him.

The police officer gestured upward. Shinsou looked up, and there it was. He had only been vaguely aware, all the while, of the sound of the rotor blades above the noise of traffic and the rain. There, visible between the surrounding skyscrapers, just discernible through the mist of rain, hovered a helicopter.

He looked at the walkie-talkie in the officer's hand. "Are you able to contact that helicopter?"

"Yes," said the officer, "But – " and then a blank expression came over his face.

There was a triumphant gleam in Shinsou's eyes.

"Get that chopper pilot on the line for me," he said.


	24. (PART THREE) MT AINO

**PART THREE**

 **24 MT AINO**

When Misa woke up, she was in a hospital bed. She lay for some time, semi-conscious, staring at the ceiling of the hospital room, which seemed to be going in and out of focus. After a while, she realised that someone was standing by the bed. She turned her head slightly, and saw that it was Shinsou.

"You're awake at last," he said quietly, and then, "Don't try to talk. Go back to sleep. The doctor says it'll be a while before you'll be feeling more normal."

She managed to nod a bit, and closed her eyes. She thought she felt the warmth of his hand on hers as she drifted back to sleep.

After a week, she was able to sit up. But she did not feel like talking. She remembered the pain, and the feeling of the poison spreading into her body. She remembered the terrible strain of having to phase the car for so long, to her last ounce of energy, and the despair she had felt when she couldn't go on. She found herself weeping for no reason, and felt a grief which came from she knew not where.

Aizawa and the Twins came to visit her, but she dissolved into tears when she saw them. After that, she didn't want visitors. She only wanted Shinsou, and she guessed that he must have eventually used his mind control on her, because after the fourth day she felt more peaceful.

She lay listless in the hospital bed, staring into space. It was only toward the beginning of the second week, when she noticed that Shinsou was looking tired and anxious, that she suddenly realised she had to pull herself together.

She exerted all her willpower toward that end, so that by the end of the week, she was feeling more like her old self. Magnetron had left a miniature replica of himself on the table, saying it would cheer her up because he was keeping watch over her, and she managed to smile at the sight of it.

"I must say, it's good to see you smile again," said Shinsou, visibly relieved.

She was looking rather anxiously at him.

"You should go home and rest, Hitoshi-san," she said, "You've been here constantly. I'm all right. I'm asleep most of the time, anyway."

"It's all right," he said, "I don't need much rest. I'll stop here while I can. I'll soon have to go … there's going to be a big raid."

"Raid?" said Misa.

"Yes," he said, "Mt Aino."

Misa realised that she had forgotten all about the Hikari case. She sat bolt upright.

"If you're going, I should be going too," she said, "It's the end that we've been working toward, all these months ... I should be there, to see it through. If you're going, I should be there, with you."

"That's impossible," said Shinsou sharply, "you won't be going anywhere for a long time. And even if you got well and got discharged, I won't let you go. You're staying here, where you're safe." There was almost a hint of anger in his voice.

Misa could tell from his tone that there was no use arguing. She looked at his stern face, and her heart sank.

The last time I wasn't there, Hideo died, she thought.

"Promise me one thing, then," she said, in a low voice.

Shinsou's expression became wary. "What?"

"Look at me," she said. She made him look into her eyes.

"Promise me you'll come back," she said.

.

.

The house near Hirogawara was a modest one, built among large grounds with trees that made it invisible from the road. Behind the house was a large warehouse, its back set into the wall of the hill that towered above it. Trucks and delivery vans often entered the compound, bearing goods and supplies of all types. The goods suppliers believed the house belonged to some retail chain, although they did think it odd that its warehouse should be located in such a remote place.

The goods were normally unloaded at the front of the warehouse, after which the trucks would leave. If the truck drivers had gone inside, they might have been surprised. The warehouse went deep into the hillside, deeper than anyone might imagine. Near the rear, ten large trucks were often parked, and if one went even further in, one would be able to observe a road where the warehouse ended, leading into the hillside and beyond.

Shinsou was seated in the living room of the house, dressed in the cult uniform. He had a rather nerdy-looking disguise on, pale floppy hair and eyes owlishly concealed by a large pair of glasses. He had the Hikari flame tattoo imprinted on his arm, and a nametag was pinned to his shirt.

The house was occupied by twelve cult members : a husband and wife who ran the household, and ten men who took turns to do the loading and unloading of the goods, and serve as truck drivers. He had brainwashed all of them. The warehouse served as the entrance to the cult's main base beneath Mt Aino, about ninety kilometres away. Cult members regularly drove in and out of the compound, entering or leaving the two domains that made up the underground base and the outside world, but they seldom stopped at the house.

It was ten in the morning, and Shinsou was about to board one of the goods trucks that was going to make the two hour-long journey to the base. Aizawa had gathered a group of eight heroes together, those that had come to be involved in the Hikari cult investigation for various reasons over the last few years. They were staying in the vicinity of Hirogawara, and at any time were prepared to make their way over and, together with another fifty police officers, enter the gates and take over the house and warehouse. There were security guards at the front gate, but they were unlikely to have any trouble subduing them and getting the gates open.

A large number of reserve police officers was also on standby, ready to enter the warehouse and make their way to the Mt Aino base to give added support. But when or whether this would happen depended on Shinsou.

The journey through the tunnel was dark, with only reflectors on either side of the road. Shinsou had discovered something interesting from the truck driver. The road leading to the southern base was closed; the tunnel ceiling had collapsed two weeks ago, and the Stone Masons were only able to come in two days' time to repair it. All the goods meant for the southern base were being delivered to the main base instead.

There was a checkpoint at the halfway mark, where the guards had infrared scanners to make sure no one was sneaking in or out of the base. One of the guards looked at Shinsou's nametag and was going to check if his name was in the database, so Shinsou hurriedly brainwashed him and told him to let the truck go through.

When they reached the base, he saw a large car park. Several buses were parked at one end, together with several vans and cars. Cult members were coming out of the base to unload the goods.

There was a more senior cult member in navy blue pants supervising the workers. Shinsou got down from the truck and, staying out of sight of the supervisor, picked up some goods and carried them in. A cult member in front of him swiped his access card, and Shinsou managed to slip in before the door closed.

There were surveillance cameras all around the building, but Shinsou was hoping he could get by for the time being by wearing the cult uniform and not doing anything too suspicious-looking. He brainwashed a cult member who was also carrying goods, just next to him, and was about to interrogate him when a bell rang. The cult members all began moving over to a neighbouring building and up to the third floor. He told his brainwashed member to continue his activities as he usually did, and tagged along behind. They ended up in a large hall where the midday meal was about to be served.

The hall seemed incredibly crowded. He estimated there must be about six to seven hundred people there. He asked his brainwashed member if this was normal, and discovered that a few hundred extra people had arrived two days ago. Supplies were running out at the southern base because of the road closure, and so the cult members there had come over to the main base for the time being.

Shinsou felt that this was a stroke of luck. He could take advantage of the confusion. With so many new faces around, and so many extra people, it would be easier for him to blend in.

He collected a plate of food from the long table at one side of the hall as the others did, and then followed his brainwashed member to a seat.

No one had starting eating; everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen.

There was a small, raised dais at the front of the hall, together with a microphone, and presently, Shinsou recognised Caligula stepping up to it, dressed in some sort of ceremonial robe. The cult members stood up and recited a pledge.

 _We swear by our lives this sacred oath that to our supreme leader the Enlightened One, we shall render unconditional obedience, and that as loyal subjects we shall at all times be prepared to give our lives for this oath._

As Shinsou listened to the pledge, an idea was slowly forming in his mind. He looked around. Other than Caligula, none of Akahara's other advisors appeared to be present.

The other cult members sitting opposite Shinsou didn't seem very interested in him; he guessed they assumed he was from the southern base.

Once the meal was over, the cult members went back to the warehouse to continue unpacking goods. Shinsou tried quizzing his brainwashed member about Akahara, without much success. He asked his brainwashed member how new recruits were normally taken care of, and discovered that there was a buddy system where they received orientation from their fellow work mates. He decided that there were so many workers in the warehouse that his cult member wouldn't be missed, and made the man show him around the base, pretending to be a new recruit.

Besides the warehouse where goods were stored, the cult member was only familiar with the kitchens, laundry and dormitories. Shinsou still brought him along as they went over to the other buildings. They managed to visit the sickbay, auditorium and propaganda production factory by closely following other people who had just swiped their access cards. Shinsou saw the operations centre from the outside, but didn't go in. He also took note of one building that was empty, guessing it was the future command and control centre.

There were sentries patrolling the base in pairs, who were wearing a different uniform. Shinsou decided that getting a sentry uniform might be useful. He waited till a sentry about his size went past, and then brainwashed both him and his partner. He then ordered the sentry to get him a spare uniform.

After getting hold of the uniform, he dismissed the sentries, and asked his cult member if there was a way to find out the cleaning schedule for the entire base. The cult member brought him to a room where a series of rosters was tacked to the wall.

Shinsou checked the rosters for Akahara's own building, which was referred to as the Lodge. The rooms were cleaned in the mornings, and the corridors in the afternoon.

There was actually a fair bit of traffic moving around the base, and he decided he would be able to make his way to Akahara's lodge alone without being too conspicuous. He dismissed his brainwashed cult member and sent him back to the warehouse.

Using Obsidian's access card, he entered the Lodge, and met a cult member on her way out, towing a vacuum cleaner. Shinsou brainwashed her and discovered that she had already completed vacuuming the corridors. He made her systematically re-vacuum the entire building again, both corridors and rooms, while he pretended to follow and observe.

The first floor contained elegant rooms with tatami matting. They had tokonoma alcoves decorated with scrolls or ikebana, and looked as if they might serve as meeting rooms or a dining room to entertain guests. The second floor consisted of businesslike meeting rooms with chairs and long tables. The third floor had a swimming pool as well as fitness rooms.

The fourth floor was carpeted and luxurious. There was an open space for a living room, with sofas and large cushions. There was a bar, and a dining room. There was even a garden with a small waterfall display, at one end.

The fifth floor rooms were mostly locked, but the few he was able to cautiously open were comfortable bedroom suites. The sixth floor consisted entirely of gardens, but there was also a dining area where one could enjoy the view of the surrounding flowers and foliage.

Shinsou was trying to find Akahara. He just needed to exchange a few words with him, and he would be able to take over the entire base.

There did not seem to be anyone around in the Lodge. One of the meeting room doors on the second floor was locked, and Shinsou guessed that there were people inside. He decided that the surveillance monitors might find it strange that the vacuuming was taking so long, so he went to the second floor, positioned himself and his cult member in the blind spot of the surveillance camera there, and waited for someone to appear.

He realised after a while that his cult member might have other chores to do, and that someone might miss her. He was about to ask her about it when the meeting room door opened and Akahara came out, together with his advisors.

It was the first time Shinsou was seeing him in person. He was a giant of a man, corpulent, with a mane of long, black hair, and a beard. His eyes were cold and cruel, and had a fanatical gleam in them.

Shinsou hurriedly told his cult member to start vacuuming the floor. He made a mental note of the advisors: Thylacine, who had a wolflike head; Iron Grip, able to crush things with his hands; Pitch Dark, who could temporarily blind the people around him; Mantis, with her pale, bulbous eyes, and Lucifer, draped in a large, black cape. They went down the corridor together with Akahara, walking away from them, and disappeared into one of the elevators. Shinsou was wondering whether to follow when the snake-headed advisor, Mamushi, came out of the meeting room and noticed them.

"Why are two people required to do the vacuuming?" he hissed. His lidless eyes bored into them.

"I'm a new recruit undergoing training," said Shinsou.

"The floor is usually vacuumed by this time – " hissed Mamushi, and then he fell silent.

The meeting door opened, and Caligula came out. He saw Mamushi standing there with the two cleaners.

"Aren't we going up to the gardens?" he said.

Shinsou hurriedly positioned himself so that Mamushi was blocking him from Caligula's view, and whispered, "Tell him you'll come in a while, and that the two of us didn't clean your room properly this morning."

Mamushi turned and looked at Caligula.

"I'll come in a while," he hissed. "These two didn't clean my room properly this morning."

Caligula frowned, but turned and left.

Shinsou waited for a while, but no one else seemed to be coming out from the meeting room. He decided he had better dismiss his cult member before she was missed, so he told her to remove the vacuum cleaner and resume her duties. He then tried interrogating Mamushi. He realised after a while, though, that Mamushi had been conditioned to divulge nothing, not even Akahara's existence.

"Akahara's been put on the alert for me," he thought grimly, "He must have heard about Despair's death at Inashiki, and conditioned all his henchmen to say nothing about him to anyone. The spy in the Directorate must have guessed that I'm the one who's been put on this case, and told him. It'll probably be useless for me to try interrogating any of the advisors from now on."

He dared not keep the snake villain too long because he knew the others were waiting for him in the gardens, so he dismissed him. "Go up to the gardens," he said, "Continue interacting with Akahara and the other advisors as you normally do."

Shinsou suspected that Akahara now probably wasn't going to talk to anyone he didn't know, and would keep himself surrounded by his henchmen all the time.

"Well, there are other alternatives," he thought, "Let's find out what his eating habits are."

He left the Lodge and went over to the kitchens.

The kitchens were large and full of people. He managed to talk to quite a number of kitchen staff, but none of them knew who Akahara was or whether any meals were brought elsewhere other than the hall on the third floor.

"It's impossible," thought Shinsou, frustrated, "There are no kitchens in the Lodge itself. Surely someone here must prepare his food."

He guessed that Akahara probably took his meals either in the fourth floor dining room in the Lodge, or on the sixth floor where the gardens were. He just needed to conceal himself somewhere and see how the meals were brought there. It wouldn't be possible to do this with the surveillance cameras present. He decided to wait till night and then brainwash those in the surveillance monitoring room, and then find a place to hide in the dining room.

He talked someone into giving him some bread, and slipped this into his bag. He then remembered something else.

"I think it's time I paid a visit to Madrigal."


	25. Madrigal

**25 MADRIGAL**

Shinsou went back to the room where the rosters were, and saw that the operations centre was usually cleaned in the mornings. It was already late afternoon; he would have to find some other excuse to go in.

He was about to walk off, when another cult member came over to check the same roster.

"Well, if she's one of those who cleans it, she can at least tell me what it's like, there," he thought. He brainwashed her.

She had a mop and bucket with her. He was curious.

"Where are you going now?" he asked.

"The operations centre," she said, "It hasn't been cleaned today. The one who was supposed to do the cleaning this morning fell ill, and no one was sent to replace her. Inoue-san is very angry."

Shinsou could hardly believe his luck.

"Does Inoue-san get angry easily?" he asked the cult member, as they walked to the operations centre.

"She is normally demanding," said the cult member, "but she has been especially uptight lately. Some weeks back I heard her shouting at the section in charge of security to start looking into implementing biometric access for all the lower-level Hikari members, saying that Hikari premises elsewhere were being violated and that the leaders here are pressuring her to tighten things up. She also wanted them to increase the number of sentries. And then the people from the southern base arrived. She had to allocate places for them to sleep, and also assign them to different sections here, and they need training because the jobs are new to many of them. Some of them do different work over at the southern base. For a few hundred people all this is not easy to do, and Inoue-san is always very uncomfortable if things are not running perfectly."

The operations centre was a sprawling complex, housing departments for all the facilities in the base. The cult member had hardly started cleaning the floor when Madrigal appeared. Shinsou decided that she was the fiercest-looking nightingale he had ever seen. She was dressed in a medieval-looking gown, and she marched up to them with a savage light in her eyes.

"Make sure this doesn't happen again," she said sharply to the cult member, "The ops centre needs to be cleaned first thing in the morning!"

"Yes, Inoue-san," said the cult member.

"Who's this?" said Madrigal, turning her fierce eyes on Shinsou.

"He's a new recruit," said the cult member, "I'm training him."

"Well, he should be doing the cleaning, then, not you," said Madrigal. She glared at Shinsou's nametag. "Let me see your name."

She stalked off after that. Shinsou mopped for a few minutes, and then, deciding that Madrigal wasn't coming back, made his cult member resume the mopping,

He was wrong. She suddenly reappeared next to them.

"Tanaka!" she said sharply, glaring at him, "I checked, and I don't have your name in my database."

"There must be some mistake," said Shinsou.

"No, there isn't," she snapped, and then her face went blank.

"Let me come to your office and have a look," said Shinsou.

When he was alone with her in her office, he said to her, "First of all, tell me if there is a public address system here."

"Yes, there is," she said, "it covers every single facility in the base."

"Who has access to controlling it?"

"We have access here," she said, "and it can also be controlled from the dining hall. The Hikari member who sets up the microphone at every meal for the pledge knows how to work it."

"Would he know how to block off transmission to the Lodge?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes," she said.

"Good," thought Shinsou. He went on to his next question. "Tell me what the communications network within the base is like."

"We have our own dedicated system for communicating within the two bases," she said, "And we can communicate with the outside world via satellite phone, but this is kept to a minimum."

"Issue me five satellite phones," he said, "and ten for use within the bases. And also ten master access cards. Give them all to me in a bag."

She was halfway doing it when her phone rang.

"Ignore your phone," said Shinsou.

Madrigal had just handed the items to Shinsou when someone knocked on the door.

"Tell them you're busy now and that you'll attend to them later," said Shinsou.

He waited till Madrigal had done as he instructed, and then said, "Since this is the headquarters for Hikari, I assume you have access to data describing all the Hikari establishments."

"Yes," she said.

"I want a list of every single Hikari establishment in Japan," said Shinsou.

"I don't know how to access it," she said, "but the Head of the Computer Section, Matrix, does."

He made her send for Matrix. The latter turned out to be a rather worried-looking individual who wore horn-rimmed glasses. Shinsou promptly brainwashed him when he arrived.

"Print me a hardcopy of all the Hikari establishments in Japan and all their details," said Shinsou, "If anyone asks what you're doing, say Madrigal asked you to do it."

Madrigal's phone had been ringing constantly, and there were now other people knocking on the office door, so Shinsou said to her, "Carry on with your work as usual." He left her office, holding the bag full of phones and access cards.

It took him a while to find his cult member. She was already halfway across the complex, busily mopping. Shinsou took up his station behind her, and told her to mop more slowly. There was still something else he wanted to get, and he was wondering how long they could stay in the complex before Madrigal noticed how slowly the cleaning was progressing.

He found himself eavesdropping on two cult members who were working nearby.

"It's going to take a long time for one person to key all this in," said one, "I won't be able to finish it by today."

"Well, Inoue-san wants it done quickly, and I've requested for someone else to come and help you," said the other, "He should be arriving in about fifteen minutes."

"I don't understand why we need to key in all the names of those from the southern base," said the first member, "There should be an existing soft copy."

"Their system there went down after this was printed out," said the second member, "So all we have is this list, at the moment."

"Why not just wait till the system is back up again, then," said the first, "and besides, why even key it in. After all, the southern base people will only be here for a while, until the tunnel is fixed."

"Inoue-san is like that," said the other cult member, "Everything's absolutely got to be catalogued properly, and she can't wait. She's got to have everything in order. She wants things done right away. It's almost like some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder, with her."

The other member grimaced.

"Well, anyway, data entry is easier than working in the kitchen, isn't it?" said the second cult member.

"It's dull work," said the first, "Which of the kitchen staff is coming to help me, anyway?"

"Someone called Katsuki Ozawa," said the second, "Do you know him?"

"No," said the first, "There are just too many people working in the kitchens, it's not possible to know everyone there."

Shinsou had heard enough. He left his brainwashed cult member to her mopping, and rapidly made his way to the entrance of the operations complex. On the way, he met Matrix, who held out a pile of papers to him.

"Thank you," said Shinsou, stuffing the papers into his bag, "I need a secure place to keep my things. Do you know of one?"

"I have two lockers assigned to me near the entrance of the ops centre that I never use," said Matrix.

Shinsou took the locker key from him.

"Do one more thing for me," he said, "Are you able to check the names of every single member in Hikari? Not only those here in Mt Aino, but elsewhere?"

"Yes," said Matrix.

"Find a Michelle Honda for me," said Shinsou, "Once you've found her, give her whereabouts to me or to Katsuki Ozawa who's coming to help do data entry."

He managed to find Matrix's lockers and placed the phones and his other things inside one. He then hung around the front of the operations complex, mindful of the surveillance camera nearby, discreetly glancing at the name tag of every person who entered. When Katsuki Ozawa came along, he promptly brainwashed him, led him out of range of the surveillance camera, and took his nametag.

"Eat this," he said, giving Ozawa a sachet filled with a white powder, "and then go over to the sickbay. I don't think you'll be well enough for the rest of the day to fulfil your data entry duties."

He then went to the nearest restroom, swapped his wig for a different one, changed contact lenses, and removed his nerdy glasses.

He made his way back to the data entry section. On the way, he met Matrix again.

"Michelle Honda is at the southern base, in laboratory 3A," said Matrix, handing him a piece of paper.

"Southern base?" said Shinsou, "But, that means she'll be here now, won't she? Can you check which section of the main base she's been assigned to?"

"No, I can't," said Matrix, "Not until the data entry has been completed. The names haven't been entered into the system yet."

"But they've already been assigned to various positions, haven't they? Who would have been in charge of assigning them?"

"Madrigal," said Matrix.

"Is this the only Michelle Honda in the list?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes."

"All right," said Shinsou, "Continue with your work as usual."

Matrix had hardly left when Shinsou suddenly heard Madrigal's trenchant tones. Something must have woken her from her brainwashed state.

"Tanaka!" she was shouting explosively, "Where is he? I haven't finished with him yet!"

Shinsou decided to accost Madrigal about Michelle Honda another time. He hurried over to the data entry section, and introduced himself to the two cult members there. He could hear Madrigal shouting at the cult member who was mopping the floor at the other end of the room.

The more senior cult member of the two gave him a list of names to key into the system. The list contained the names of the southern base cult members. He scanned it; there was no Michelle Honda there.

"Can I have a quick look at your list?" he asked the other cult member.

There was no Michelle Honda there, either.

"There must be some mistake," Shinsou thought. He scanned it twice, then three times, and then handed it back to the cult member, who was beginning to look impatient.

"Are these all the names there are?" he asked the cult members.

"Yes," said the senior one, "Three hundred of them. Surely you don't want more, do you?"

Shinsou decided it was time to leave. He brainwashed the two members, told them to key in the names in his list for him, and left. Before exiting the ops centre, he managed to get Matrix alone and asked him to create a fictional cult member with the name Tanaka and enter it into the database, in case Madrigal insisted on pursuing the matter.

He went over to the warehouse building where the goods were stored, following along behind a group of cult members. The storage rooms there were huge, lined with rows and rows of shelves and piles of sacks, a good place to hide. He took note of where the surveillance cameras were located, and found a secluded corner on the first floor where he brought out one of the mobile phones Madrigal had given him to make a call to Aizawa. He then settled down to wait for night.

The brainwashed cult member from the warehouse had told him that he and his workmates normally retired early. Dinner was at seven, and by nine they were expected to be in their dormitories. Shinsou waited till ten. He then changed into the sentry uniform he had obtained earlier, and ventured back out.

Lights had been switched off in some parts of the building. He went to the nearest place that was out of sight of the surveillance cameras, and waited in plain sight for some sentries to come along.

Two came, after about fifteen minutes. They caught sight of Shinsou, and hurried over.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" barked one.

"I was told to wait here," said Shinsou.

"By who? – " and then he became glassy-eyed.

"Look, what's the matter with him?" Shinsou said to the other man.

The other sentry looked at his partner. "Nishida, what's wrong?" Then he looked irritably at Shinsou. "Anyway, who are you? – " His face became blank.

Shinsou brought a sachet of powder out.

"Give me your walkie-talkie, access card and other accessories, and then eat this," he said to the first sentry, "And after that, walk down to the sickbay and ask for someone to let you in. Tell them you've lost your access card. I expect you won't be well enough to be on duty for the remainder of the night."

The man went off. Shinsou made the other sentry accompany him to the third floor of the operations building where the surveillance room was.

They came across two other sentries there.

"There's been a change," Shinsou said, when they approached, "We're supposed to patrol the third floor here. The two of you are supposed to go to the warehouse basement, first floor."

They both answered him at the same time.

"Who gave that order – "

"Who are you? – "

Shinsou gave them the first sentry's access card so that they would be able to enter the warehouse building. He waited till they had gone off, and then said to his sentry partner, "Follow me to the surveillance room."

They made their way to the surveillance room, and then stood outside, in full view of the cameras.

After a while, someone from the surveillance room came out.

"Why are the two of you standing there so long?" he said, annoyed.

"Don't you remember me?" said Shinsou.

The man frowned. "Who? – "

"Wait here for me," Shinsou said to his sentry partner.

"Answer my questions," he said to the surveillance guard, "How many men are there in the surveillance room with you now?"

"Three," said the man.

"Tell me what time your next shift will be coming in."

"0600 hours," said the man. "We just started this shift."

"That should give me quite a lot of time," Shinsou thought.

"Step back into the surveillance room with me," he said to the man, "Tell your colleagues it's all right, that I'm Tanaka, your best friend in high school, that I've just arrived and you are excited and want to introduce me to them."

After he had brainwashed them, he tried interrogating them about Akahara's movements. He managed to confirm that the cult leader and his advisors usually took breakfast in the garden dining area on the sixth floor, while the remaining meals were in the fourth floor dining room. The guards had not observed which bedroom was Akahara's. They had been instructed to monitor the premises for strangers or peculiar behaviour, not cult members.

Shinsou considered his options. He basically needed to get Akahara alone or accompanied by not too many people so that he could brainwash them. He didn't know if Akahara slept alone or with a guard. He could wait till the following night and brainwash the surveillance guards again, and use their cameras to see which villains went into which bedroom.

He could also wait till day and then hide nearby while Akahara was having his meals, and see which of the cult members brought the food, and then try to drug the food for the following meal.

He asked the brainwashed surveillance guards to be seated, so that they would look more natural should anyone come in. That was when he noticed the extra chair.

"How many men are there in your shift?" he asked.

"Five," they answered.

"Well, where's the fifth?" he asked.

"In the restroom," they said.

Bother these surveillance guards, thought Shinsou, why do they always give me so much trouble. I'll have to wait for this fellow to come back and then brainwash him.

He waited for ten minutes, and then asked them, "Does he normally take a long time?"

"Yes," they answered.

"Well, I can't wait forever," he thought. He noticed a flask of water and a cup on the table.

"What's your colleague's name?"

"Hirata."

Shinsou located the nearest restroom. "Hirata?"

"Yes!"

Shinsou climbed up and, looking over the cubicle door, handed the blank-faced man a cup of water with a sedative mixed in. "Drink this."

"That should knock him out for a couple of hours," he thought, as he left the restroom. "As for those others in the surveillance room, I'll have to take the gamble that no one will come along and find them."

Now that the surveillance guards had been taken care of, he could roam the base without worrying about the surveillance cameras. Obsidian's floor plan showed emergency exits at various places around the facility, and Shinsou thought it would be useful to check some out before eventually finding a hiding place in the Lodge dining area. He didn't need his sentry partner any more, and sent him off to the sickbay with a packet of powder as well.

He decided to check out the exits in the dining hall. He made his way there, evading a few sentries along the way, and located one exit. It was locked, obviously because the cult did not want any of its members to escape. He guessed that only Akahara and his henchmen had the keys.

It took him a while to pick the lock, but he eventually managed it. He opened it, and brought a small flashlight out. He saw a flight of stairs leading upwards into darkness. Next to it was an elevator. He didn't fancy walking up two thousand feet of stairs, so he took the elevator up.

Its doors opened to reveal a tunnel which curved to the right. Shinsou made his way down the tunnel, and eventually came to a pair of blast doors. These were massive; he estimated that they probably weighed up to twenty tons. When closed, they were designed to protect the base from a nuclear explosion.

They stood open now, though, and Shinsou walked through them, encountering a second set of blast doors further down. He finally came to a second locked door. He picked the lock, and then cautiously slid the door open. Cold night air wafted in.

He looked out. The door was camouflaged to look like part of the rock face it opened out to. It lay behind a thick clump of trees, at the base of Mt Aino. Above the door was a small surveillance camera, well hidden. It was cold, and he was still wearing only the sentry uniform. He walked out some way to look around, and could see the mountain, tall and dark, stretching upward above him.

He stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the feeling of being above ground again, and then went back in and locked the camouflaged door. He made his way back, through the blast doors, down the elevator and back to the dining hall.

He was approaching the exit door to the dining hall, when someone pushed it open.

Shinsou froze. He then swiftly moved to a corner, and switched his flashlight off. How careless he had been, he thought, not to have locked the door.

The figure that came in was silhouetted for a moment against the dim light from the dining hall, and looked small and thin. It was wearing the cult uniform.

The cult member closed the door, so that all was in darkness. Shinsou saw sparks coming from the cult member's hand, providing a faint light.

"A cult member independent-minded enough to be sneaking around at night is worth interrogating," he thought, "and I know of one such cult member who has an electrification Quirk."

Silently, he brought his whip out. In a flash, he flicked it around the cult member's upper body. Sparks flew, and he felt what seemed to be a slight electrical shock.

He pulled at the whip so that his victim would be slightly off balance, then swiftly swept his foot out, knocking the cult member off his feet. He pulled the whip tight so that his victim would have difficulty breathing.

"Stop struggling and stop those sparks," he said, "or I'll pull the whip so tight that you won't be able to breathe in an atom of air."

The cult member stopped struggling, and the sparks ceased. Shinsou brought his flashlight out, and pointed it at the man's face.

The eyes that looked up at him were terrified, and the face was not that of a man's, but a girl's. The right side of her face and right arm were badly scarred, but he recognised her.

It was Mai Yamada.


	26. The Raid

**26 THE RAID**

Shinsou looked at the scarred face.

"You're Mai Yamada, aren't you," he said, "I won't hurt you. If I remove the whip, don't scream. I can throttle you in a second if you do."

Her eyes widened, and then she nodded.

Shinsou loosened the whip. Mai Yamada was gazing at him with a mixture of fear and excitement.

"I know you," she said, her voice trembling, "I've heard your voice before. You were the one, weren't you, in Kamone, with the other lady …"

Shinsou was astonished. How did she know that, he thought, I thought I'd brainwashed her.

But she was continuing.

"I heard you talking," she said excitedly, "After I ran out, I hid in the bushes outside the library, and I heard you talking inside. You … you were sorry for me. You said you wanted to take me with you."

"You were outside?" said Shinsou, "We thought you had run away."

"Please take me with you, now," she said, her eyes pleading, "Please take me with you now, please take me with you, now!"

She was beginning to cry. "Something terrible is going to happen later today! I don't want to be here any more. I want to go home. I want my mother!"

Shinsou removed the whip.

"Hush," he said, "Somebody will hear you. I can't bring you out just yet. I've got something to do here. What are you doing here, wandering around at night?"

"I – I was looking for the emergency exit," she said, "I overheard some conversation between the leaders that some of the exits are open sometimes now."

Her glasses were missing. He looked around with his flashlight, and eventually located them. Picking them up, he returned them to her, and then looked thoughtfully at her.

"How did you get out of the dormitory?" he asked, "I'm fairly certain it's locked at night."

"I – I managed to make a hole in the wall," Mai confessed. "There's a wooden cupboard right next to where I sleep. I burned the rear of the cupboard first, and then chipped at the wall behind it. I stole some sharp tools for that. The cupboard contains towels … I hid the hole behind the towels during the day. I sat in the cupboard every night and chipped, and then I burned a hole in the wooden cabinet on the other side of the kitchen wall. It's taken me months. I was finally able to squeeze through the hole tonight and get into the kitchen. That's not locked."

"She got out after I brainwashed those surveillance guards," thought Shinsou.

"Isn't there a camera in the room?" he said, "How did they miss seeing you doing the burning, night after night?"

"The camera's near the door," said Mai, "I think they think that's the only place anyone could get out. I sleep right at the other end of the room, and the woman next to me is quite large … she blocks me from the view of the camera. I placed a pillow under my blanket so it would look like there was someone there."

Shinsou sat down next to her, and looked at her scarred face and arm. They looked like burns.

"Is that what they did to you, after we left?" he asked gently.

She nodded, looking stricken.

"Listen," said Shinsou, looking intently at her, "I want to get you out of here. But I want to get everyone else out as well. I need you to tell me whatever you know about this place, so that I can work out a plan."

.

.

About an hour later, Shinsou brought Mai back to the kitchens, and she wriggled through the hole in the wall back to her dormitory. Several hours later, he put his nerdy disguise on again and went down to the car park. He brainwashed the two sentries on duty there, and shut them inside a nearby closet. He then checked to make sure that there was no one else around, and settled down to wait.

Aizawa and the others soon arrived in the cult's goods trucks which they had taken from the Hirogawara house. Aizawa got down first, leaving the others in the trucks.

"Here," said Shinsou, handing him the printout he had obtained from Matrix, "this is a list of all the Hikari establishments in Japan. The police might find it useful once we're done here."

Aizawa looked approving. "Good," he said.

Shinsou also handed him the bag of mobile phones and access cards, and then asked, "How did it go?"

"All right," answered Aizawa, "there were more of us, and we managed to subdue all the checkpoint guards. We took over their satellite phone, and left some officers disguised as them in case any other cult members come driving into the tunnel."

He looked at Shinsou. "So, what's been happening?"

"Well, it has proved tricky getting Akahara alone, and it's risky if I try brainwashing him and his henchmen as a group," said Shinsou, "I don't know what the spy in the Directorate has told him, but he seems to be on his guard. The surveillance guards say he's surrounded by his henchmen all the time. He's conditioned his henchmen not to mention anything about him, so it's useless interrogating them. I haven't found out yet if there are guards in his bedroom, or which bedroom is his. If I want to find out I'll have to wait till the following night and brainwash the surveillance guards again."

Aizawa frowned. "So, what have you planned?"

"Well, I met that girl we interrogated in Kamone," said Shinsou, "Mai Yamada. She says Akahara and his advisors all take breakfast in the sixth floor garden every morning. She's the one who normally brings the food trolley up. I gave her a sedative to put in the food. Once they're asleep, you and the others can get in there and secure them."

"Is this girl reliable?" asked Aizawa, "Maybe you should put the sedative in, or one of us."

"I can't, I'll be busy at that time," said Shinsou, "The cult members recite a pledge before every meal – Caligula leads them. I'm going to brainwash Caligula into letting me lead instead. We can broadcast the pledge over the public address system so that we can reach everyone in the base, even those in the sickbay and operations complex, and in the fire station and power generation plant. I've noticed the cult members have all been conditioned to take the pledge very seriously. After I've brainwashed the entire base, you can get the police in there to bind all the cult members and lead them to the trucks."

"Brainwash the entire base?" said Aizawa, "Are you sure you can do that?"

"I can try," said Shinsou. He pulled out a vial containing the Quirk-enhancing drug the cult had been producing. "This might help me with that. Otherwise, I might get Caligula to order them to cooperate with you. They would listen to him."

"Is all that necessary?" asked Aizawa, "If we successfully capture Akahara and his men, we can evacuate the cult members at leisure."

"No, I'd rather evacuate all of them as early as possible, especially those in the dining hall," said Shinsou firmly, "There's going to be a mass suicide later this morning. The Yamada girl overheard them talking about it. She doesn't know how many, but there are some people who are going to be brought elsewhere to wait after breakfast, and after the advisors have finished their own breakfast, some of them are going to go to wherever it is and conduct the ceremony."

Aizawa looked at him, sharply.

"All right," he said, "Go on."

"Breakfast for the cult members is at 0700 hours," said Shinsou, "Akahara usually has his breakfast at 0715 hours so that Caligula can join them. I'll send Caligula back up after the pledge so he can join them and get drugged together with them."

Aizawa frowned.

"This is one of those plans where there are just so many things that could go wrong," he commented. "What if one of the villains has toothache and doesn't touch his food?"

"Then I'll go in and have a talk with him," replied Shinsou, unperturbed, "Or we'll simply fight. Some of them should succumb to the drug. It'll give us fewer people to fight."

Aizawa sighed.

"Very well," he said, "Where do we position ourselves?"

"Some of you can take over the surveillance room right now," said Shinsou, "I've brainwashed the current shift and will brainwash the next shift when they arrive. Some can hide in the warehouse. Not many people go there, unless new goods are arriving. I'll show you where all the uniforms are kept – basic, sentry, surveillance – and all of you can find something that fits. You saw that everyone got tattooed, didn't you?"

Aizawa nodded. "What about the rest?"

"They can pose as sentries," said Shinsou. "The next sentry shift takes over at 0900 hours. I'm going to brainwash all the remaining sentries in the dining hall and surrounding areas, and you can lock them away. The police officers can take their places."

"Won't the cult notice that there are extra trucks here?" asked Aizawa.

"I doubt it," said Shinsou, "They'll recognise them as their own trucks. Anyway, not many people will come to the car park – a cult member told me there aren't any goods due to arrive today ... they've already had a few loads delivered yesterday. I'm hoping no one else is going to arrive or leave early by car. Since we're doing it at breakfast, everything should be over by 0900 hours. You can park the trucks behind the buses, where they won't be so noticeable. Once we've bound the cult members, you can call the police to bring in additional transport."

"All right," said Aizawa. He paused, and then asked, "What was it you wanted to tell me about the southern base?"

"You might not have noticed, but the road from Hirogawara doesn't end here," said Shinsou, "It actually goes a bit further on, to the second base. Part of the ceiling collapsed two weeks ago, and the Stone Masons are only coming to repair it tomorrow. Supplies were low, so they had the cult members stationed there come over here for the time being. But that girl, Mai – she says there are still people at the southern base – prisoners."

"Prisoners?" said Aizawa.

"People without Quirks who've been abducted, or cult members who have committed various offences," said Shinsou, "she says there are over a hundred of them. I plan to go over and get them, once we've finished here."

"How far away is that base?" asked Aizawa.

"About forty minutes' walk, according to the girl," said Shinsou. "They've been occasionally unlocking some of the emergency exits, so that people can walk between the two bases above ground, until the tunnel ceiling is fixed."

"So how reliable is this girl?" asked Aizawa, again.

"I can't say," said Shinsou, "but the cult seems to have been sending her on quite a number of errands, besides her kitchen duties. I think they noticed she understands instructions better than the other members. Obviously they haven't realised it's because her mind hasn't been tampered with. That's why she was chosen to serve Akahara his food. She's been sent to the southern base a few times already. And she's been listening to bits of conversation around the base, because she's been trying to plan an escape. So she actually understands how things run here."

"If this thing works out, we'll be in her debt," said Aizawa.

"She wants to be back with her family, mostly," said Shinsou, "I'd say that would be her best reward."

.

.

Morning came too soon, and yet not fast enough for Mai. She had not slept a wink, after leaving Shinsou. She was excited, because there was a chance that she might actually be reunited with her family soon. But she had a task to do first, and she was frightened, in case things didn't work out, and something went wrong.

Aizawa and the others had taken the brainwashed surveillance room guards captive, and Shinsou had waited around for the next shift and brainwashed them, as well. Aizawa and some of the others had taken over the surveillance room, dressed in the guards' uniforms. Shinsou had also brainwashed all the sentries in the dining hall, kitchen and dormitory buildings, and police officers wearing the sentry uniform were now posing as them. The remaining heroes and police officers were hiding in the basement, dressed in cult uniforms.

As the time for breakfast approached, Shinsou saw one of the cult members setting up the microphone for the pledge. He brainwashed him, and instructed him to broadcast the pledge over the public address system to all the buildings in the base, except for Akahara's Lodge.

He then began to make his way over to the room where the ceremonial robes worn during the pledge were kept. At this moment, Mai Yamada came up to him, looking fearful.

"Tanaka-san?" she said, "I just found out – it's not Caligula leading the pledge today, it's Iron Grip."

"What?" said Shinsou, "What about Caligula, then?"

"He's feeling unwell, and staying in his room."

"So he's not having breakfast?"

"He asked for a light meal," she said, adding, "I'll be putting the drug in it."

"Do you know which room he's in?" asked Shinsou.

"Yes, it's the third bedroom from the end."

Shinsou contacted Aizawa.

"Iron Grip is leading the pledge. Caligula's indisposed – he's keeping to his room, third one from the end," he said, "Just keep an eye on it, will you? He's still having food sent up, so it's OK."

"Provided he eats it," said Aizawa.

"That's why I'm asking you to monitor him," said Shinsou, irritated.

"What about Iron Grip?" asked Aizawa.

"Iron Grip should be joining Akahara for breakfast, I presume," said Shinsou, looking at Mai.

She nodded.

Shinsou ended the call with Aizawa, and then asked Mai, "Are you sure nobody will disturb us in the robing room?"

"I think so," said Mai, looking worried.

He smiled.

"I'm sure it'll be all right," he said, "I think you had better get back to your station. Yours is the biggest task today."

"I'll try my best," she whispered, looking frightened.

Shinsou waited in front of the door of the small room where the robes were kept, and presently saw Iron Grip approaching.

"Tsukamoto-sama, good morning," he said, bowing.

"Get out of the way!" snapped Iron Grip. His face went blank.

Shinsou entered the room together with Iron Grip. He made the villain put the ceremonial robes on, and then sat him in a corner. He then called Aizawa.

"I'm in the robing room now," he said.

"Acknowledged," said Aizawa, "Firefly saw you go in. She'll intervene, if anyone tries to enter the room."

"Is everything ready?" asked Shinsou, "Any villains outside the Lodge who might hear me broadcasting the pledge?"

"No, Akahara and all the others are located at various places around the sixth floor of the Lodge," said Aizawa, "We'll take care of them if any start coming down while you're doing the pledge."

"Anyone at the basement car park?" asked Shinsou.

"We've got people watching there too in case anyone arrives unexpectedly."

Shinsou ended the conversation, then took his voice changer out. He made Iron Grip talk, and adjusted the voice changer until it produced a voice that sounded reasonably similar.

At this moment, he heard the sound of a door opening at the other end of the room.

Shinsou stiffened. He hadn't realised that there was a door there; a large rack of robes had been blocking it from view.

Two people had come in. They saw Shinsou sitting next to Iron Grip holding the voice changer, and stopped short.

It was Thylacine and Mamushi.


	27. The Stone Locket

**27 THE STONE LOCKET**

Shinsou swore silently.

"What are they doing here?" he thought, "Why didn't Aizawa warn me?"

The two villains were standing in surprise, looking at Shinsou sitting next to the blank-faced Iron Grip.

Thylacine came forward.

"Iron Grip, who is this?" he snarled, glaring at Iron Grip and then at Shinsou, "What are you doing here?" He came nearer, looking menacing. "Your scent is familiar. It's like that scent I picked up when I visited Kamone and Ematsu!"

"I was just cleaning the room here," said Shinsou.

"I know your scent – "said Thylacine, and then he fell silent.

Mamushi was coming over, now. He looked at the blank-faced Thylacine, and then slowly approached Shinsou.

"You must recognise me from yesterday," said Shinsou.

Mamushi did not speak. He continued to advance, until his reptilian face was inches from Shinsou's, the lidless eyes boring into him, forked tongue flickering in and out.

Shinsou decided that enough was enough.

"Iron Grip," he said, "Throttle Mamushi."

Iron Grip reached one muscular arm out and grabbed Mamushi by the throat. His huge hand slowly began squeezing it tight.

Mamushi's eyes bulged, and a desperate expression came over his snake face. He made a gasping sound, and grabbing hold of Iron Grip's hand, tried to free himself.

Shinsou waited for about five seconds, and then said to Mamushi, "Shall I ask him to stop?"

Mamushi was writhing in pain, still tugging at Iron Grip's hand. He nodded desperately.

"I can't hear you," said Shinsou.

Mamushi's eyes were bulging in horror. He opened his mouth, and his forked tongue emerged.

" _Yes-s-s_ ," he managed to hiss, wheezingly.

"Let go," Shinsou said to Iron Grip.

Iron Grip immediately released Mamushi. The latter's reptilian face was blank, but he was still breathing heavily.

Shinsou checked the time. It was almost seven. He hurriedly injected himself with the Quirk-enhancing drug.

He left the brainwashed villains in the robing room, and after giving Iron Grip some instructions, made him walk out to the hall. He went to one side, letting Iron Grip go over to the dais. The cult member he had brainwashed earlier saw Shinsou, and came over and gave him a microphone.

"So, the one Iron Grip is using is a dummy?" said Shinsou.

"Yes," said the cult member.

"And the pledge will not be broadcast to the Lodge?"

The cult member nodded.

Shinsou made the brainwashed cult member stand in front of him, blocking him from view. He put the voice changer on. He peered out from behind, watching Iron Grip.

Iron Grip began mouthing words soundlessly, as Shinsou had instructed him to. Shinsou brought out a piece of paper on which Mai had scribbled the words of the pledge for him.

"Members of Hikari, this is your comrade Iron Grip speaking. This morning, we have taken the unprecedented step of broadcasting our pledge to all parts of the facility so that everyone in the base can participate. Let us begin now. Repeat after me, loud and clear: _We swear by our lives this sacred oath_ …"

By the time Shinsou had finished the first line of the pledge, the cult members were all glassy-eyed. He still completed another line, and then glanced around. The police officers had come into the hall.

"Friends of Hikari," he announced over the microphone, "Members of the police will presently approach you and give you certain instructions. Follow whatever they tell you to do. Obey their every instruction."

The police officers came forward to secure the cult members.

Shinsou had another announcement to make.

"Michelle Honda, if you are anywhere in the base, please present yourself to Police Chief Ando at the warehouse car park."

Shinsou then brought Iron Grip back to the robing room and ordered him to disrobe. He looked at Mamushi and Thylacine and said, "Tell me why you came to the hall today."

"We were going to instruct some of the cult members to lead the chosen members out for the mass suicide," they answered.

Shinsou frowned.

"If Akahara or anyone else asks you about it, say that you have done so," he ordered them.

He then made the three villains follow him to the Lodge. He decided he'd better make sure they made it up to the sixth floor, so he got into the elevator together with them, planning to get out on the fifth floor.

The elevator doors closed, and Shinsou suddenly realised that the elevator was moving downward, not up. The elevators in every building in the base led down to a basement which was connected by a series of corridors to the warehouse car park.

The elevator stopped at the basement, and the doors opened.

Shinsou hastily pressed the lift button, but it was too late. There was explosive fighting going on – somebody must have arrived by car, he thought. Someone was thrown violently against the lift door, and he saw that it was Cyanide.

Mamushi and Thylacine were standing at the rear of the elevator, but Iron Grip was next to Shinsou, and he started. To Shinsou's consternation, awareness began returning to his pallid face.

Shinsou saw two of the heroes, Pulsar and Aquila, descending upon Cyanide. He hurriedly pressed the lift button hard and continuously, and the door closed.

Iron Grip was looking at the voice changer Shinsou was holding. Before the latter could say anything, he reached out, and grabbed Shinsou at the neck.

Shinsou tried to speak, but Iron Grip was holding him tightly at the throat, shaking him.

He made a great effort.

"Stop that," he managed to spit out, between clenched teeth.

Iron Grip was looking infuriated.

"WHO … ARE … " he began to roar, and then a blank expression came over his face.

He let go of Shinsou, and the latter fell back, gasping, and clutching his throat.

His phone vibrated. Shinsou looked up at the camera in the top corner of the elevator.

"You had better get out," he heard Aizawa's voice. "Akahara is standing near the elevator landing on the sixth floor, with some of the others."

The elevator was moving upward. Shinsou hurriedly pressed the fifth floor button. As the elevator stopped at the fifth floor, he said to the villains, "Return to the sixth floor and have breakfast as usual. Converse as usual with everyone. If anyone asks, tell them that Iron Grip gave the pledge as usual this morning."

"Hopefully they can stay brainwashed until the drugs take effect," he thought, as he got out at the fifth floor, still feeling his bruised throat.

Aizawa was still on the line. "Are you all right? They've gone into the breakfast room. It looks all right, before they went in they seemed to be talking normally with the others."

"He almost crushed my throat," said Shinsou, bitterly, "Why didn't you warn me those two were coming into the robing room?"

"Did they?" said Aizawa, surprised, "They must have somehow bypassed the cameras."

"What's happening in the basement?" asked Shinsou.

"Cyanide came," said Aizawa, "We expected him, because those posing as the checkpoint guards told us. I don't think he realised we've taken over the Hirogawara house, because he doesn't seem to have alerted the others here at the base. He must have driven straight through. It's all right, Aquila and Pulsar have subdued him."

"Good," said Shinsou, "Has Obsidian's fiancée turned up?"

"So far, no," said Aizawa, "or Ando would have called me."

Shinsou pressed the elevator button, and it began descending from the sixth floor. The door opened to reveal Mai and her trolley, looking terrified.

"I've done as you instructed me," she said, looking at him, her eyes large.

Shinsou got into the elevator.

"That's really good, Mai," he said, "Do you know what's happening with Caligula?"

She nodded, still looking at him, wide-eyed.

"He's eaten his food already," she said, "I've removed his empty tray."

"That's great, he should be asleep soon," said Shinsou, "You've done your part. You could actually leave now, with the police and other cult members. Shall I arrange it for you?"

She looked shyly at him.

"I thought I'd stay a bit, until it's over," she said, blushing slightly, "I'd like to see the heroes … and maybe you might still need me, if you want more information about the base."

The lift stopped at the first floor, and they got out.

"Well, that's OK," said Shinsou, rather surprised, "but if the drugs don't work, there'll be fighting. You stay clear of that, you hear me?"

"All right," she whispered.

"I'm going to wait here," he told her, "You can go back to the kitchens. You haven't had your breakfast, have you? Go get something to eat."

Mai went off with her trolley, and Shinsou got Aizawa on the line again.

"Are the rest of the police coming?" he asked.

"On their way," said Aizawa, "In several buses, to fit all the cult members in. Cyanide's been taken away in one of the cars already. If Akahara and the others don't succumb to the drugs, then we'll fight."

Shinsou ended the call, and was considering whether to go to a higher floor to wait, when to his surprise, Mai returned with a plate of food.

"I thought perhaps you might not have eaten, either," she said, shyly.

He smiled at her. "That's nice, but I think I'd better wait until all this is over."

She looked as if she was going to leave, then hesitated.

"Tanaka isn't your real name, is it?" she asked.

"Well, as a matter of fact, you're right," he said, "I do intelligence work, and I'm not supposed to reveal my name."

"This isn't even how you look, is it?" said Mai, looking wonderingly at him, "it's a disguise, isn't it?"

Shinsou laughed.

"Is it that obvious?" he said, "Then it can't be a very good disguise."

"Oh, I didn't mean that," she said, her face going red.

"I'm sure you want to talk to your parents," said Shinsou, "why don't you give me their number, and I'll see if I can put you through."

He tried several times, but there was no answer.

"We'll try again later – " he started saying to Mai, when Aizawa came on the line again.

"The drug is taking effect," he said, "They're realising something isn't right. I'm calling all the heroes. We're going to move in, and take them, now."

"OK," said Shinsou.

.

.

It was largely over by the time he reached the sixth floor. The villains were all stretched out, asleep. Akahara appeared to be deep in slumber. Shinsou looked at him for a while. This was the man responsible for everything, all those murders and ruined lives, he thought.

The heroes were milling around, looking dumbstruck.

"We don't even need to fight," said Pulsar, "If every operation was as easy as this, we'd be out of a job."

"Let's get to work," said Aizawa briskly, "We've already discussed who's going to secure who, and how to bind them according to their Quirks. Everyone clear? Get started."

Some of the police officers were bringing large trolleys up from the warehouse in order to transport the sleeping villains.

"I think it's time I headed off to the southern base," Shinsou said to Aizawa, "There's still no news of Michelle Honda, is there?"

Aizawa shook his head.

Shinsou turned, and saw that Mai Yamada had come up to the sixth floor, and was standing to one side, watching and wondering.

"That's the girl," he said to Aizawa, "Arrange for her to travel to Hirogawara and back to her home, will you?"

He brought Aizawa over.

"Mai-chan, this is Shouta Aizawa … he'll arrange for you to travel out of here."

She bowed shyly to Aizawa, then turned an anxious face to Shinsou.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

"I need to change," he said, "but I'll come back and say good-bye before I go, all right?"

She nodded.

When he came back, he was dressed in ordinary clothes.

"Is that going to get you in?" said Aizawa, frowning.

"The cult members usually wear normal clothes when travelling above ground between the bases," replied Shinsou, "otherwise, people will notice. I just need to show my flame tattoo. Once the guard has let me in, I'll brainwash him into showing me where the prisoners are."

He looked at the row of trolleys with their payload of villains. "Why is it taking so long to bring them down?"

"The basement's crowded," said Aizawa, "A lot of the cult members are still waiting near the car park for transport. Anyway don't worry, we've bound them securely."

Mai was seated to one side, watching. Shinsou went over and sat down next to her.

"I suppose this is a more pleasant place to wait than the basement," he said, "At least, there's a garden behind you."

She smiled shyly, then looked hesitantly at him.

"Tanaka-san?" she said, "I was wondering whether to tell you about this."

She brought a large locket on a chain out.

"What's that?" asked Shinsou.

"I don't know what to do with it," she said, "One of the prisoners gave it to me."

Shinsou examined the locket. It was heavy, and made out of a smooth, black stone, intricately carved. He opened the locket, and there was a picture of a man and a woman inside.

"Where did you get this?" Shinsou whispered.

"Do you know them?" asked Mai, noticing his expression.

"I know the man," said Shinsou.

"It was the woman who gave it to me," said Mai timidly, "I was sent on an errand to Akahara's building, and there were some prisoners queueing up outside one of the rooms. I think they were new and were being sent to see Akahara to be brainwashed."

Shinsou's heart sank.

"They normally will take away all the prisoners' valuables," said Mai, "Maybe that's why she gave it to me. I was just walking by, and I saw her looking at me. She looked so desperate. She slipped it into my hand and then the guard came, so I quickly walked on."

"Did she say anything to you?" Shinsou demanded.

"N-no," said Mai, looking frightened.

"Do you know where those prisoners went?" he persisted.

She shook her head, her eyes wide.

"When did this happen?" asked Shinsou.

"A few months ago," said Mai nervously, "in June, I think."

Shinsou bit his lip.

"I'll keep this, if you don't mind," he said.

"Of course," she said timidly. She watched as he put it in his pocket, and then asked, "Are you going to the southern base now?"

"Yes," said Shinsou shortly. He tried to compose himself. "And I just need to confirm a couple of things with you. The base entrance is near a copse of pine trees, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said, "That part of the mountain is bare, except for those pines. You can't miss it. There's a guard concealed there; he'll only come out if you stop under the pines. Normally there's no guard, but after the tunnel ceiling collapsed, members had to travel between the bases above ground, so a guard was stationed there to admit them."

"I'm surprised they allowed cult members to run errands above ground," said Shinsou, "someone could have run away, couldn't they? Why didn't you take that opportunity to escape?"

"There was a senior cult member with me," explained Mai, "I was only sent when the seniors needed help carrying some urgent goods there. My senior partner was quite vigilant about keeping an eye on me."

"I see," said Shinsou. He glanced at his flame tattoo. "I just need to show the guard at the pines my tattoo, is that right? Otherwise he won't show me the base entrance."

She nodded, then looked sad. "Are you leaving now?"

"Yes," said Shinsou, "Aizawa will take care of you. We owe you a debt for all your help. Are you ready to see your parents?"

"Yes," she said, shyly. She paused.

"Do you think they will mind the way I look?" she asked, hesitantly.

He looked at the scars on her face and arm.

"You're their daughter," he said firmly, "and they'll love you, no matter what."

She smiled. "Will I see you again?"

"I don't think so, Mai," he said gently.

"I wish I could at least know your name," she said, wistfully.

Shinsou looked at her scars again.

"She's earned the right to know," he thought, "after the way she helped us today. And she would never have gotten those scars if Misa and I hadn't brought her out and brainwashed her."

"I'll tell you," he said quietly, "but you'll have to promise not to tell anyone."

"I promise," she said, solemnly.

He smiled.

"Shinsou," he said, "My name is Shinsou."


	28. Mai Yamada

**28 MAI YAMADA**

Twenty minutes went by, and Aizawa, waiting on the sixth floor, began to grow impatient. Most of the other heroes had gone down to the basement to talk to the police and help keep an eye on the cult members. He contacted Pulsar to find out what was happening.

"How long are they going to take to clear those cult members?" he asked. "I want to get these villains transported. The drug lasts two hours. I know they're trussed up, but I would prefer they didn't wake up before we put them away."

"Well, there are seven hundred cult members, that's not a small number, you know," said Pulsar, "And the police got delayed. Some other cult people turned up at the Hirogawara house, and they were busy containing them."

"Well, what time will they be arriving?" asked Aizawa.

"I don't know," said Pulsar, "but there's a police chief here, Ando. He wants to confirm with you whether they can start raiding all the other Hikari establishments now."

Aizawa said, "Remind him that when they raid Kamone, there's one of the Stone Masons there whom they don't need to detain – his name is Hatano."

"He's asking all sorts of questions," said Pulsar, after a few minutes, "You had better come down and tell him in person."

Aizawa didn't like to leave, but he saw that Boadicea was still there, keeping an eye on the villains, together with ten police officers.

"Mai-chan," he said to Mai, who was still sitting on a bench near the garden, "I'm sorry for the delay, but I can assure you, we'll arrange for your transport as soon as we can."

"It's all right, thank you, Aizawa-san," she said, in her usual shy way. She was secretly hoping that the delay would be long enough for Shinsou to return.

Aizawa went down to the basement and talked to the police chief. Then he said, "I want to give priority to transporting those villains out. Have the armoured vans come?"

"A few have," said Ando.

"Then let's start moving them," said Aizawa, "Starting with Akahara."

His phone rang; it was Shinsou.

"I'm at the southern base," he said, "The prisoners are starting to leave, about two hundred of them. Cerberus and Wind Rider and some of the police officers are escorting them."

"Two hundred prisoners? Good," said Aizawa.

"A lot of them aren't in good shape," added Shinsou, "I should have asked you to bring a doctor along."

"I did, Bainbridge is here," said Aizawa, "There weren't any villains there?"

"None," said Shinsou, "There were four senior cult members, but otherwise the base was empty except for the prisoners and their warders. I managed to brainwash all of them."

"Was Obsidian's fiancée among the prisoners?"

"I looked, but couldn't find her," said Shinsou.

"What else do they have over there?" asked Aizawa.

"I'm going to have a look around now," replied Shinsou, "I've taken the prison warder's master access card. I'll tell you when I'm back."

Some of the other heroes were standing nearby, listening.

" _Who_ is this covert operative?" demanded Aquila, when Aizawa had ended the call. His fierce eagle eyes were boring into Aizawa. "He looks like a total nerd. But have any of you ever seen an operation like this done by a single person? I haven't! We managed to secure every cult member in the entire base! Seven hundred cult members from the dining hall alone, two hundred prisoners now being recovered, eight or so deadly villains captured, and not a drop of blood spilled! And us heroes milling around, hardly doing a thing! Well – except for capturing that Cyanide fellow."

"I don't know who he is," said Aizawa mildly, "He was sent by Covert Ops. He may not even be from the Directorate. He could be some hero from an agency that the Directorate engaged for the operation. Probably only Fujiwara knows his identity."

"Are you saying that he's not going to get any credit for this?" exclaimed Lightning Bolt, "That's a crying shame! The man deserves a medal!"

"Well, that's the nature of Covert Ops," said Aizawa, "the operatives have to remain anonymous. The better known you are, the smaller the chance you have of carrying out your duties."

"Is it the same operative who cracked the Kusanagi case three years ago, and the Shiramine case before that?" asked Firefly.

"Officially, the Directorate wasn't involved in those cases," said Aizawa, "although the media seemed to believe otherwise."

"That's right, Eraserhead," said Aquila, "What are you going to tell the media? This will be big news. They'll want to know all the details about it!"

"The police will issue a statement saying that they managed to pull off the operation, together with the help of all of you," answered Aizawa.

"But it seems so unfair for us to take the credit!" said Lightning Bolt, appalled, "And what are we going to say when the media comes after us? They're going to find out! There are police officers here who saw what happened, and right now they're probably telling all their remaining colleagues who've just arrived. How discreet are these going to be? The same thing happened for the Kusanagi case. It's hard to keep something like this under wraps!"

"There were all sorts of rumours and fantastic stories going around, for those previous cases," agreed Firefly.

"If he goes on like this, he's going to become a legend," said Aquila.

Aizawa was about to reply, but was distracted by the sight of Caligula finally being moved out to the armoured vehicles.

"Good," he thought, "About time too."

He went back up to the sixth floor to check on things. Akahara was gone, he was pleased to see. Only Mamushi and Thylacine were left.

He was going to check on Mai when his phone rang.

"Eraserhead!" Pulsar came explosively on the line, "Where's Akahara?"

"What are you talking about?" demanded Aizawa, "He's already been sent over to you!"

"Nonsense, we never received him!" retorted Pulsar, "I expected him right away, and you keep sending me all these other small fry!"

"I told the guards to send him off first thing – " Aizawa broke off. "I'll call you back."

Aizawa marched over to the guards. "Who was guarding Akahara?"

"Imada," said several of the guards, pointing.

"Was Akahara sent down to the basement?" asked Aizawa.

"Yes, Aizawa-san," said Imada respectfully, "The police officers came to collect him quite some time ago."

Aizawa frowned. He turned to the others. "Did all of you see Akahara being escorted out?"

None of them answered. Finally, one said, "Imada told us we had to go down to the basement to collect some truncheons. He said they wanted us all down, because we had to individually sign for them. He said he wasn't going because he already has one. When we came back, Akahara was gone."

"Collect truncheons?" said Aizawa.

"Yes, but when we got there, they told us there weren't any."

Aizawa looked at Imada. "Who told you that there were truncheons to be collected?"

"I don't know," said Imada, "I received a call from one of the officers at the basement."

Aizawa looked suspiciously at him. He unravelled his scarf, and swiftly enveloped the officer in its bands.

"Tell me where you did your police training."

Imada looked confused.

"Tell me which Prefecture you were born in."

The officer did not reply.

Aizawa looked down at the man's holster.

"Where's your revolver?" he said sharply. He turned, and saw Boadicea standing to one side, staring into space.

"Boadicea!"

She look startled, and came over.

"You were still here, weren't you?" said Aizawa, "Did you see Akahara being taken away?"

"Yes, the police officers came," said Boadicea.

Aizawa looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Weren't you the one who bound Akahara just now?"

"Yes I did, with help from Imada," she said, looking surprised.

"He's missing," said Aizawa.

"That's impossible!" she said defiantly.

Aizawa stared at her, hard.

"Tell me which hero school you attended."

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head slightly.

"Tampered, all tampered," thought Aizawa, "That bastard … he must have been still awake enough to open his eyes and look at them. They've become pawns, there's nothing in their minds except the objective of allowing Akahara to escape."

He brought his phone out.

"Pulsar, are you there? Alert the others. Akahara has escaped!"

He heard Pulsar give several explosive exclamations.

"That's right, escaped," said Aizawa, "He brainwashed both Boadicea and one of the guards and took the guard's revolver. Let all the others know. Get Cerberus back here as fast as you can. I'm going to ask for search dogs."

He paused, because a police officer had just come up from the direction of the elevators.

"I'm sorry, Aizawa-san, but we were told there is a Yamada-san here who needs transport to Hirogawara," he said respectfully.

"Yes, that's right," Aizawa looked around for Mai. "She was waiting here." He looked at the guards. "Where is she?"

The guards looked blank.

"I haven't seen her around for a while, sir," one said.

"Yes," said another, "Not since we came back from the basement …"

They walked around, looking for her. Aizawa had a sense of foreboding.

"He's taken her," he thought, "Someone, please tell me this isn't happening,"

He brought his phone out. "Cerberus, can you get over here fast, leave the prisoners with Wind Rider and the police. It's an emergency. I need you to track down someone."

The guards had gone off to get search dogs as well. Aizawa looked around.

"I can't wait till they arrive. If he had taken her, which direction would be the most logical? The emergency exits on this floor? He's a large man …"

His eyes wandered over to the garden. He strode over. Sure enough, there were signs of the grass having been trampled.

He pushed through the bushes, taking note of where the branches had been broken and the grass disturbed. After a while, he tried calling. "Mai-chan! MAI-CHAN!"

A faint cry answered him.

Aizawa found her curled up among some bushes, weeping. His heart sank when he saw the bloody wound in her shoulder.

He spoke sharply into his phone. "Eraserhead here. Get Bainbridge over to the sixth floor garden at the Lodge immediately. Someone's been shot."

Mai was frantic. She clung to him. "Oh, Aizawa-san!"

"Hush," he said, "The doctor will be here soon. Mai-chan, can you tell me what happened?"

"Akahara came," Mai wept, "That tall lady hero and the policeman cut him loose. He took the policeman's gun. He overpowered my mind. He asked me where Shinsou-san was."

"Shinsou?" said Aizawa.

"Yes," she sobbed, "and – and I couldn't resist him … _I told him_!" She went off into a frenzy of weeping.

Aizawa dialled Shinsou's number, but there was no reply. You were just on the line with me, answer me, damn it, thought Aizawa.

"Mai-chan, please calm yourself," he said, "How long ago was this?"

"I'm not sure," she sobbed, "maybe half an hour."

He tried contacting Shinsou again, but there was no reply.

He called Pulsar. "Akahara's gone to the southern base. Get all the heroes over there. Cerberus should be here soon – he was just there, he knows the way."

Bainbridge arrived, and started ministering to Mai.

"Relax, little lady," he said, "this will hurt a bit. Aizawa, talk to her a bit to distract her, will you?"

"Mai-chan, why did Akahara abduct you?" asked Aizawa.

Mai had finally stopped weeping. She seemed weary, and was looking pale.

"He said he knew I had helped you, because I was the one who brought the food," she said, "He said he wasn't going to destroy my mind, but would give me a bloody death for everyone to see. I tried electrocuting him when he aimed the gun at me, and his shot went slightly astray. He didn't try to shoot me again, because he was afraid someone would hear. He left. He said I would die, anyway."

She glanced at Bainbridge, and then gave Aizawa a frightened look.

"Will … will _he_ be OK?" she asked.

Aizawa knew she meant Shinsou.

"He'll be fine," he said, "he knows Akahara's weak points – that is, to avoid eye contact with him, and the other heroes will be reaching the southern base soon."

He decided not to excite her further by talking to her, and went to one side to wait while Bainbridge finished attending to her. He wanted to join the other heroes, but he couldn't leave till he found out if the girl would be all right.

Bainbridge finally came over.

"Well?" said Aizawa.

Bainbridge looked at him. "I can make her comfortable."

Aizawa saw the expression on his face, and understood.

"How long?" he asked.

"Half an hour, maybe a bit more," said Bainbridge quietly.

"That's not enough time," said Aizawa, "We should try to bring her parents here. She's been wanting them, she should see them before …" He didn't continue.

"The time is not mine to give, Aizawa," said Bainbridge. He turned, and went back to Mai.

She was looking wan. "Will I get better?"

"Of course you will!" Bainbridge said heartily, "You just need to rest. I've given you a painkiller, and you'll feel better soon. We'll set up a tent for you, where you can lie down."

Once they had settled her there, Bainbridge said, "Now, this is my assistant, Furuya-san. I'll leave her with you. Just ask her, if you need anything."

Mai looked at the nurse, and then at Aizawa. To the latter's consternation, she began to cry.

Furuya came forward. She was a kindly-looking, matronly woman.

"Hush, don't cry now," she said, "You have to rest."

Mai's eyes were on Aizawa. "Aizawa-san," she said, pleadingly.

Aizawa's heart sank.

"She can't want me," he thought. But he realised that the nurse was a stranger, and that the girl wanted someone familiar to stay with her.

He bent down and said quietly, "I can stay a while. Would you like that?"

She nodded.

Bainbridge and Furuya were looking slightly nonplussed.

"Well," Bainbridge said, "We'll be at the medical tent, if you need anything."

"Try to get her parents on the phone, will you?" said Aizawa.

He sat down next to Mai. She was looking listless now, eyes averted, staring into space.

Why am I here, thought Aizawa, I don't know about such things. What to say, what to do, to comfort this child. Anyone else would do, Midnight, Miss Joke, Iridium, Firefly, Misa, even Shinsou …

"Aizawa-san?" Mai's voice was faint.

She was now looking at him.

"I'm dying, aren't I…?" she whispered, "… That's why you stayed. Because you knew … otherwise you would have gone with the other heroes, to find Akahara …"

Aizawa didn't know what to say. Mai was now looking down at the coverlet. She closed her eyes, then opened them after a while. She was trembling. "I want my mother," she whispered, "I'm so afraid."

Aizawa willed that anyone else be in that tent with her instead of him. But there's no one else, he thought. Only me.

"I'll hold you," he heard himself saying, "in the stead of your mother and father. You can imagine it's your father holding you. Then you won't be afraid."

He gently lifted her, and cradled her in his arms, letting her head rest against his shoulder.

She closed her eyes. He could feel her trembling.

"Please talk to me," she said softly, "I'm afraid. Talk to me, and then I won't think about dying."

Aizawa was nonplussed. What do I say? He wondered.

"You can talk to me, instead," he said, "Tell me about something good, those happier days with your family, before you joined Hikari …"

"Those days …" she repeated. She closed her eyes.

"I have a brother and a sister ... and my parents run a small ryokan in Hakone … I used to help out there, after school …"

She talked for a bit longer, then ended with, "That's all. I don't have much to say. My life has been so ordinary. I've never done anything much. That's …that's why I joined Hikari. I thought I could accomplish more, there …"

She was crying a little. Aizawa shifted slightly, trying to make her more comfortable.

"You've accomplished much, Mai-chan," he said quietly, "You were a hero today. Greater than any of us. If you had not met Shinsou, and given all the information that you did, and helped us doctor the villains' food, and told us about the mass suicide, and that there were prisoners … we couldn't have done any of what happened today. It was a miracle, what we pulled off today, with hardly any casualties."

"But … Akahara escaped," she said, faintly.

"We'll recapture him," answered Aizawa, "You did your part, and we'll do ours. I give you my word.

"And once we've caught him," he continued, "think how many people will be saved. There won't be any more murders, no more recruiting of cult members. Indirectly, you would have saved more people than many heroes do, in their lifetime."

She was looking up at him, and her eyes were shining. She didn't say anything, because she was feeling weak. She closed her eyes and rested against his shoulder.

However, after a few minutes, she spoke again.

"Aizawa-san? Could you … please … tell my parents that I love them."

"I will," he said, "And I will tell them what their daughter did today, and that she was a hero."

She was silent for a few minutes.

"Aizawa-san?" she whispered, "Will you say goodbye to Shinsou for me? And to his friend … I don't know her name. I know that they cared about me. They wanted to save me, back in Kamone. I heard them talking."

"I will," said Aizawa.

"I often regretted that I didn't show myself to them," she said, "But things would have been different, if I had gone with them. I wouldn't have been able to help you here today, would I?"

"No," said Aizawa, "you wouldn't."

There was a pause; she seemed to be thinking.

"It's fate, isn't it," she whispered, "It's destiny. It was meant to be this way ... I was born to do this. I understand, now. Now that I've completed what I came here to do, it's time for me to go."

Aizawa was silent. His heart was heavy, as he cradled the dying girl in his arms.

"She should be rewarded for what she did," he thought, "But all she's receiving is … this."

She did not speak again, but closed her eyes, a contented look on her face. He thought that she was sleeping, and that she would go that way. But right at the end, she suddenly opened her eyes, and smiled up at him, trustingly. Then she lowered her gaze and rested her head against his shoulder. He watched as the face slowly became still, and the eyes sightless.

He didn't put her down right away, even though he knew that she was gone. Her body was still warm, and he held her a while longer. Only when he felt that the warmth was leaving and the body was becoming cold, did he lay her down on the mattress.

There was a movement at the entrance of the tent, and he knew that Bainbridge had come back to check on them, but he did not turn yet. He smoothed the tousled hair. She went peacefully in the end, he thought. Bending down, he kissed the lifeless face, and gently closed her eyes.


	29. The Southern Base

**29 THE SOUTHERN BASE**

When Shinsou reached the southern base, he had had no trouble entering. The guard came out once he lingered under the pines, and Shinsou had promptly brainwashed him. He had made the guard bring him into the base and to the prison warder, and had brainwashed the latter and the senior cult members into releasing all the prisoners.

Shinsou had been shocked by the condition of the prisoners. Some had obviously been tortured. They had terrible scars which looked like burns, and some had body parts with bright red skin which hinted that they had been scalded or boiled. He could tell by their faces that they may well have undergone psychological torture too.

He had asked the two heroes and the police officers to wait some distance away, because it wouldn't have done for the guard at the pines to see a crowd of people heading for the base entrance. When the prison warder had given the order to evacuate the building, he had called them over. Transport had to be arranged for some of the more incapacitated inmates.

While waiting for the evacuation to be completed, Shinsou had decided to check out the remainder of the base. It was not as large as the main one, and was similarly made up of different buildings, colour-coded. One building was, of course, the prison, and it also housed what he realised must be a torture chamber where the prisoners had probably been made to suffer. It contained numerous cruel-looking implements.

Another building contained a vast array of weapons. Shinsou even saw an attack helicopter in its cavernous basement. Yet another housed a series of laboratories next to rooms filled with explosives. There were also factories for munitions and chemical and biological weapons, as well as storage rooms for them. Then there were kitchens and sleeping quarters for cult members, as well as a warehouse for food and other supplies.

He was approaching the last building, which appeared to house more laboratories, when his phone rang.

"Tanaka?" It was Cerberus. "Just to inform you, we've evacuated the last prisoner."

"Good," said Shinsou, "I'll be along shortly."

He entered the building. The first floor laboratories were labelled 1A and 1B. The second floor, 2A and 2B. 3A, he knew, must be on the third floor.

The first and second floor laboratories looked standard, containing long tables and test tubes and other laboratory equipment. Laboratory 3A was different. Cold air wafted out the minute he opened the door. Instead of laboratory tables, the room housed a series of large, coffin-like capsules, stretching across the entire room, neatly laid out in rows.

Each capsule housed a body. The bodies were deformed, some quite grotesque, some in unnatural colours. Some of them looked like mere tree trunks, with eyes. They were the results, Shinsou realised, of Akahara's genetic experiments.

His heart sank. Please tell me Michelle Honda isn't among them, he thought.

He looked at the bodies with a growing disquiet. Why don't they dispose of them, he wondered. Surely they can't be keeping them for further research. He saw that each capsule was labelled by name as well as serial number. How ironic. It would have been more appropriate to catalogue them by number alone. The persons to whom those names belonged to no longer existed.

I should set the room on fire, he thought, to give these people a decent burial. At the very least, their families should be spared the horror of knowing how their loved ones had died. As he looked at them, it seemed incredibly sad to imagine that these had formerly been living persons, unique individuals, fathers and mothers and sons and daughters, who had once lived and laughed and loved and walked, whole and healthy, upon the face of the earth.

He put his hand in his pocket and took out the stone locket, trying not to feel any emotion. I don't want to find anything here, he thought, but I have to look.

He found her halfway across the room.

Shinsou stared at the body in the capsule.

"I can't ever let Obsidian see this," he thought, "I'm going to get some of those explosives from the other building right now, detonate them here, destroy this room … nobody will ever know …"

He was about to turn and leave, when her eyes moved.

Shinsou's heart jumped. He looked more closely at the body. It was hardly discernible, but the chest was rising and falling, barely perceptibly.

He looked at the next capsule. The body there, too, was breathing. He waited a while, and saw some slight movement in the eyes.

Shinsou felt a horror growing within him. They were still alive. All those grotesque and deformed objects in the capsules, were alive.

What kind of life existed in there, he wondered. Can their minds still think? Do they know what they've become? Or have they just become vegetables?

He felt as if he was in some sort of nightmare. They were alive, and there was no way he could burn that room down, now.

Perhaps it isn't Obsidian's Michelle Honda, he thought in desperation. He brought the locket out, and held it, suspended, just above the capsule.

Her eyes moved to look at it.

He removed the locket, and waved his hand in front of her face. The eyes did not blink or respond.

He suspended the locket above the capsule again, and her eyes fixed themselves on it. He moved the locket out to one side, and her eyes followed it.

He felt a sense of despair. It was her, and she could still recognise the locket.

Shinsou put the locket back into his pocket. I have to get out of this room in order to think clearly, he thought, or I'll go mad.

He turned around, and found himself looking into the face of Akahara.

He hurriedly averted his eyes, but it was too late. He felt the terrible, irresistible force of the cult leader's mind pushing out.

"Hitoshi Shinsou," the voice was deep, "I've been wanting to meet you, lately."

I've got to fight him, Shinsou thought. I can't succumb …

But he could feel his mind descending into a thick fog.

"You are Shinsou, are you not?"

"I am," said Shinsou.

"Disarm yourself."

Shinsou brought his whip out, and dropped it onto the floor.

"Follow me."

Shinsou only heard the words dimly. He followed Akahara out of the laboratory, into an elevator, down one floor, two, three …

He walked along, oblivious of his surroundings. After what seemed a long time, they halted. His mind was in a fog; but some small part of it told him that they were in the torture chamber.

Akahara was speaking quietly to him. "You've ruined my empire, Shinsou. All that I've painstakingly built up. The glorious future that was waiting …"

Shinsou was vaguely aware that the cult leader was affixing a collar to him, to which some cords were attached.

"I have a use for you. But I only need your mind and voice and will. Your body I shall break, slowly, painfully."

He pulled the cords, and then slammed Shinsou against the wall.

"We shall go through everything in this chamber, slowly. Starting with walling, then _ebi-zeme_. I shall relish every minute, inflicting retribution on you for destroying the dream of a better world."

He proceeded to smash Shinsou into the wall a few more times.

"You must be wondering, how did I know it was you? Ah, but you knew I had planted a spy within the Directorate, didn't you? My spy suspected you, and your presence here has proved me correct."

He continued the smashing, until Shinsou collapsed in a haze of pain.

Akahara bent down and removed the collar.

"I'll enjoy slowly breaking you, Shinsou. You'll regret you ever tried to interfere with me."

He went over to a table at one side, and picked up a whip. He continued speaking quietly, dispassionately.

"I know you can still hear me, Shinsou. You can listen to my voice, while you slowly recover your faculties. I can inflict psychological torture on you, too."

Holding the whip, Akahara looked down at the still form on the floor.

"Bow down before me! I want to see you prostrate yourself before me."

Shinsou slowly crawled forward, and prostrated himself.

"Your legend's going to end here, Shinsou. Yours, and that phasing witch sidekick of yours."

Something seemed to register in Shinsou's brain.

"She means something to you, doesn't she, Shinsou? My spy told me about her as well. I won't destroy your mind, so that everything will be clear to you."

Some of the fog in Shinsou's mind was clearing.

"I'm going to search the witch out, and make you kill her. A lingering death, not like the swift way in which I shot and killed the Yamada girl. I'm going to make you give her a slow and agonising end, all the while totally aware of what you're doing."

Shinsou drew a breath; the fog was lifting.

 _Misa,_ he thought. The memories came flooding back. He remembered the first time they had met in Toyama, her face in the moonlight as they looked down on the town above the roof of the café. He remembered the first time they had kissed, that intense moment on the hillside in Ematsu. And he remembered her lying in the back seat of a car, tears streaking her face, dying.

"You're going to help me, Shinsou. I have a use for you, someone who can control the minds of many at once. You've torn down what I built, but I'm going to use you to build it up again. I will bring about the new age again with your aid, even greater and mightier than before."

Shinsou slowly lifted himself up till he was on all fours.

"I'll see you in hell, first," he said, through clenched teeth.

He pushed out with the force of his own mind, fighting, his will fierce against Akahara's.

"What did you say? – " said Akahara, and then fell silent.

Shinsou slowly got to his feet, and there was a cold fury in his face. Akahara was standing, staring blankly into space.

"Drop the whip."

Akahara let the whip fall to the floor.

"Bring out the gun that you killed Mai Yamada with."

Akahara took the revolver out of his pocket.

"Point it at your head."

Akahara obediently pressed the muzzle of the gun into his head.

Shinsou looked at him, his eyes blazing.

"You're going to die, you son of a bitch," he said slowly, "You're going to die. Even this is too good for you. You're going to rot in hell. I'm going to make you blow your own brains out. You're going to die, for what was done to Misa, for what you did to Mai Yamada, Shibata, Obsidian, and all those other innocent people."

He paused, then took a deep breath.

"Pull the trig – "

"SHINSOU, STOP!"

Shinsou whirled around.

Professor Hadron was standing at the door of the chamber, breathing heavily, with Magnetron and Klystron behind him. The Twins were looking terrified.

"That's you, isn't it, Shinsou?" panted Hadron, "The Twins made me come here. Magnetron knew you would try killing Akahara, to avenge Arakawa-san. It's a mistake, Shinsou. Don't do it!"

Shinsou felt a surge of anger well up within him. Curse Hadron, the interfering, stuttering, idiotic fool.

I can still do it, he thought. Pull the trigger, tell him to pull the trigger.

But he looked at Akahara, and knew it was too late. The moment had passed.

Shinsou put his hand to the back of his neck and closed his eyes for a moment, still feeling the pain from the walling Akahara had inflicted on him.

"I'll have to bring the bastard to the main base," he thought, wearily. But the danger of someone interfering with his mind control along the way was too great. It would be safer to leave him here in one of the high security cells, brainwashed, until the others came.

"Wait there," he said curtly to Hadron. He turned, and made Akahara walk over to the prison.

"I could kill him here," he thought, as Akahara entered one of the cells. But he knew that he could no longer do it.

He entered a combination into the number panel, and the door slid shut. Then he went back to look for Hadron and the Twins.

They were no longer in the torture chamber. He left the prison building. The next building housed laboratories and explosives. He approached the entrance of one of the laboratories.

Suddenly, Klystron was screaming.

"Shinsou-san, watch out!"

There was a swift whistling noise, and he felt a stinging pain. A dart was embedded in his arm. Quirk-nullifying, he thought. Cursing, he snatched it out, but it was too late. Hadron was standing ten feet away, holding a dart gun, and there was a malicious expression on his face.

"I've wanted to do that to you for a long time, Shinsou," he said, lowering the gun, "How I've wanted to do it every time you set foot in my lab. You've been interrogating everyone around you, haven't you? I always had a cold feeling in my heart whenever I saw you come in."

Shinsou said slowly, "You were the spy."

"I was the spy," smirked Hadron. "And I made sure every time you came near me, I created some diversion, like calling the Twins over. I saw to it that you never had the chance to strike up any sort of conversation with me."

"I should have," said Shinsou, grimly.

"You've destroyed all our plans, Shinsou," said Hadron, "We were going to build a whole new world. I suspected that they would put you on this case, but I had a hard time confirming it. After the rumours started flying around that you cracked the Shiramine and Kusanagi cases, every significant happening in the Directorate started being attributed to you. I was trying my best to find out, but that paranoid Aizawa led me a fine dance. He left nothing to chance. He was always bypassing me, giving instructions directly to the Twins, whom he trusted. I planted bugs all over the place, trying to find out who had been assigned to investigate Hikari. But that fool kept making Magnetron remove them. Those damn robots didn't trust me, either. They were more loyal to Aizawa than to me, curse them."

He waved his right hand, and several glowing orbs emanated from it. With a flick of his hand, he sent the orbs smashing into the Twins, causing them to squeal in pain.

"Stop that!" Shinsou was halfway across the room when he saw that Hadron had swiftly placed another ten orbs above the Twins.

"Another step and I'll kill them, Shinsou," Hadron snapped. He smiled unpleasantly. "You've never seen my Quirk, have you? These are high energy plasma. One orb may only cause you a lot of pain. But I can conjure ten, twenty in a second with no difficulty, more than enough to put any of you out of action for good."

Shinsou suddenly noticed the number of cracks and fissures on the Twins' bodies. He realised that they hadn't been looking terrified earlier because of Akahara. Hadron had been hurting them, forcing them to come with him.

"Leave them alone!" he said, angrily, "Why did you bring them?"

"I knew you wouldn't trust me if I turned up on my own," sneered Hadron, "Stupid robots, always foiling my plans. I would have gotten rid of them long ago, except that I couldn't have run the lab without them."

Shinsou was measuring the distance between them, trying to estimate how fast he could get over there and overpower Hadron.

"I suspected you," Hadron said again, "but I didn't dare tell Akahara without proof. In the end he became impatient, especially after first Carousel and then Despair was killed. He knew someone was infiltrating us. He used his mind control on me to make me confess my suspicions about you. And he was angry after that. But I can redeem myself now. I shall kill you and free Akahara, and that shall more than restore my standing with him."

Shinsou stalled for time.

"You were the one who got Nakamura installed as Director General, weren't you," he said.

"That idiot was put there to distract you from me," said Hadron, "and to disrupt the operations of Covert Ops. You were getting too close to finding me out. I guessed you were systematically brainwashing all those around you, and when you were done you were going to start on all the other Divisions, one by one."

He began to conjure orbs, one after the other, until there were about a hundred suspended in the air around the room.

"And now, you'll give me a little bit of entertainment, Shinsou," he purred, "Don't bother about any of the other heroes rescuing you. I've locked the base doors from the inside. I think you deserve a painful end. But I won't kill you right away, since you've delivered Akahara to me. Once I release him, I, the only one left loyal to him, will be exalted. We'll start over again, building the new world order."

He raised his hand, about to send the orbs shooting toward Shinsou. At this moment, Klystron, injured as she was, suddenly stood up with an effort. She sent a weak streamer of glowing magnetic field lines shooting toward Hadron.

Hadron, distracted, turned, and in that split second, Shinsou closed the distance between them. One quick punch and kick, and he had Hadron on the ground. The Support Head was writhing in pain, but he generated a plasma shield around his body, so that Shinsou would not be able to touch him. In doing so, he lost control of the orbs. They flew around madly as their creator's control went awry, and they now came falling like rain. Shinsou felt a burning pain in his shoulder and legs as several smashed into him. He could hear the Twins squealing in pain.

Some of the orbs fell on the laboratory tables, and a white, hot fire sprang up as they ignited the flammable contents of the flasks there. The blaze quickly spread, as more and more of the liquid on the tables were set alight.

Shinsou, unable to touch Hadron, picked up a nearby chair. Hadron, seeing that he was about to bring the chair smashing down on him, managed to struggle to his feet. He turned and ran, his plasma shield still glowing around him.

Shinsou was about to give chase, when he suddenly spied Magnetron's gadget bag on the ground. Ronald Ray Gun was sticking out of it.

He picked the gun up in one swift movement and aimed it at Hadron. A jet of white light shot out of it, smashing into the fleeing figure. Hadron gave a loud cry, and then fell down and lay still.

A huge explosion suddenly erupted nearby, and half the room was in flames. They reared up, reaching all the way to the ceiling.

I have to get the Twins out, Shinsou thought.

He turned to look at them, but the fire was already coming.

As he saw the inferno bearing down upon him, and the heat and flames overwhelmed him, his final thought was that he had promised Misa he would come back.

.

.

Shinsou opened his eyes. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was. He could feel scorching heat, and hear the crackle of flames. The parts of his shoulder and legs where the plasma had hit him felt as if they were on fire. He was vaguely aware that someone was next to him, weeping.

He sat up. Magnetron was sitting there, with Mary Poppins around his neck. Through the glow of the force field, Shinsou could see flames leaping and dancing.

Magnetron was badly injured. His right arm was hanging at a strange angle, and numerous parts of his golden exterior were broken. They were some distance from the fire, and Shinsou realised that the little robot, wounded as he was, had somehow managed to drag him away from the flames.

Magnetron was crying heartbrokenly.

"O Sh-Shinsou-sama," he sobbed, when he saw that Shinsou had woken up, "Klystron is d – dead!"

Shinsou felt a pang in his heart. Klystron! She had tried so hard to help to the very end.

He could feel the intense heat from the flames. The fire was still spreading. He wondered if the force-field would hold. There was smoke everywhere, and it was impossible to see more than a few feet. The laboratory was huge, and he had no idea in which direction the exits were.

"Magnetron," he said urgently, "We have to leave here before the fire reaches the rooms where the explosives are housed. We have to get to the north wall where the exits are. Are you able to channel your magnetic field lines like a compass to give us the direction?"

Magnetron was still weeping inconsolably. His was a sad and drooping figure, a far cry from his usual buoyant self, his body racked by shuddering sobs at the loss of his twin. Shinsou thought for a moment that he had lost control of his senses, but after a few more seconds, he managed to sob, "A-Affirmative."

Glowing magnetic field lines began to issue forth from him, pointing the direction in which they should go.

Shinsou picked the little robot up, and spoke in his ear.

"I owe both you and Klystron my life, Magnetron," he said, "I'll get us out of here."

Holding the still sobbing robot close to him, and ignoring the pain in his legs, he turned in the direction the field lines were pointing, and ran.


	30. Going Home

**30 GOING HOME**

Misa was standing at the hospital window, gazing unseeingly out at the surrounding tangle of buildings and traffic. It had been three weeks since the Hikari raid took place. She was thinking about all the people whose lives the cult had ruined: Klystron and Mai Yamada, Shibata and Obsidian.

"If I had been at the raid," she thought, "I might have been able to help, and maybe Klystron and Mai need not have died."

The southern base had been almost completely destroyed once the fire had spread and detonated the explosives. Akahara and Hadron were dead. The room which had housed the victims of the genetic experiments had been totally incinerated. Fortunately, Shinsou had managed to close the blast doors when he reached the exit, and the base that had been so strongly reinforced to withstand a nuclear attack from the outside had also withstood an assault on the exterior from the chemical and biological weapons within. None of these had leaked out into the surrounding countryside.

Shinsou had come to see Misa several days after the raid, and given her the news of its outcome. He had waited a few days because he had not wanted her to see how badly he had been injured. He told her that he had been hurt, but that Bainbridge had already patched him up. He said little about his encounter with Akahara, except that he had managed to brainwash him in the end. As for the genetic experiments, he would only say that he had seen casualties from it, one of which was Michelle Honda. He had not been able to speak to anyone about the details of that horror yet. Misa suspected that there was more to what he was telling her, but that he would not talk about it.

Shinsou had been glad that she was getting better, and it had been good to see her. She was like a good talisman, dispelling the disquiet in his mind, and seeing her made him feel normal again. He had stood for quite a long while, just holding her, and saying nothing.

Misa had not seen Shinsou since that first visit. She knew that he was busy. He had told her that he was going to see Obsidian, to break the news about Michelle Honda's death, and give the locket back to him; and he and Aizawa were going to meet Mai Yamada's family, and return her body to them.

She heard someone at the door, and hurried back to her bed and got in. The doctor had been reprimanding her about moving around too much. It was good she was up and about, he said, but she still needed to get enough rest.

However her visitor turned out to be not the doctor, but Aizawa.

"I'm glad to see you're recovering well, Arakawa-san," he said, taking a seat next to her bed.

Misa glanced at the likeness of Magnetron that was sitting on the side table.

"How is Magnetron?" she asked.

"Recovering," said Aizawa, "But he's a changed person. He has become more serious now, and he seems to have lost his zeal for inventing things. However, we're hoping that he'll eventually recover enough to continue his work in the Support Lab."

She gave a small sigh.

"Actually, Arakawa-san, I came here partly to find Shinsou," said Aizawa, "I expected him to be here."

Misa looked surprised. "Hitoshi-san? Isn't he at work?"

"No," said Aizawa, "He told me last week that he wouldn't be coming in to work for a while."

Misa was nonplussed.

"I need to ask him something," said Aizawa, "but perhaps you can help me out."

She looked questioningly at him.

"That night when you fled from Inashiki," he said, "An anonymous caller told the police to look for a car in Mizuno Park. A Porsche was found there, drenched in nerve gas. Would you know anything about that?"

"We took a Porsche from the Inashiki house," said Misa cautiously, "but I'm not sure what happened to it. I was semi-conscious during most of the journey."

Aizawa was silent for a few minutes. Then, he sighed.

"Is anything wrong?" asked Misa, worried.

"A Mazda belonging to one Neito Monoma was also stolen that night," he said, "Monoma was found in Mizuno Park, near to the place where the Porsche was found, with no recollection of how his car disappeared. His Mazda was later discovered to have crashed into a police car in Yachiyo district that same night. One of the police officers involved in the crash says that the driver had a sick person in the car, but that was all he remembered about it."

"Oh," said Misa.

"The police have also discovered that the black boxes of one of their patrol helicopters on duty that night are missing," continued Aizawa, "The helicopter had been in contact with police on the ground, including some officers who were patrolling the Yachiyo area. But neither the officers nor the pilot remembers anything out of the ordinary."

Misa was beginning to have misgivings.

"Also, Haneda Airport and several other aircraft in the vicinity detected the chopper on their radars initially," said Aizawa, "But at about 0200 hours the radar signal was lost. The final radar position showed the chopper in the Yachiyo area, near Sato building which has a landing pad on its rooftop." He got up and walked over to the window, and looked out. "Didn't Magnetron develop a radar cloaking device some time ago?"

Misa was round-eyed. She didn't trust herself to speak.

There was a pause, and then Aizawa said drily, "I must say that Shinsou always manages to be thorough."

"Surely you don't think … you don't think …"

"I'll find out when I ask him," said Aizawa, grimly. He turned and came back, and stood by the side of the bed, looking at her.

"I have something else to talk to you about," he said, "Arakawa-san, has Shinsou told you that our group is going to be disbanded?"

Misa looked at him, shocked. "No."

"Well, he told me he wasn't going to be in Tokyo for the next few months," said Aizawa, "He says he's going on leave. And we can't carry on without him, of course."

Misa felt her heart sinking. "Shinsou is going away?"

"Yes," said Aizawa, resuming his seat, "I'm surprised he didn't tell you as much."

"No," she said, feeling hurt.

"We might as well disband anyway, because our group isn't needed any longer," continued Aizawa, "Group Sigma was formed solely for the purpose of solving the Hikari case. You've already completed a year's training, and no longer require supervision. After last month's successful raid, there are a lot of things the police still want us to help them settle, interrogations to be done, reports to be written, charges to be made, and so on. And there are no other pressing cases to investigate at the moment."

Misa nodded distractedly. Her mind was still trying to absorb the unexpected information about Shinsou's leaving.

"I thought I'd come and talk it over with you," said Aizawa, "that is, about what your plans are, once the group is disbanded."

"Well, I didn't know about it," she said forlornly, "so I haven't made any plans."

"I see," said Aizawa, "Well, there are a lot of groups like ours that form temporarily and then are dissolved until they are needed again. Normally the group members go back to the Divisions they originally came from, or are assigned elsewhere, as necessary."

Misa was listening with foreboding in her heart.

"However, I understand that you specifically prefer to work with Shinsou," said Aizawa, "Am I right?"

"Yes," she said.

"That's why I thought I'd better talk to you about it," said Aizawa, "so that we can discuss your options." He paused. "Are you all right? You look pale."

She was leaning her head against the rail of the hospital bed.

"The disbanding of the group is a blow to me," she said soberly, "I've become so used to the routine of it all, training, planning for the next assignment, working with Iridium and the others … it has become part of my life. I will miss it."

"Well, it won't be for forever," said Aizawa, reassuringly, "Assuming that Shinsou stays on in the Directorate – I do not know what his plans are – our group will definitely get back together some time. It's an unfortunate fact that villains never go away, and it's a given that there will be new cases for us to work on in the future."

Misa nodded dolefully.

"I was going to suggest that you go back to your studies," said Aizawa.

She looked at him in surprise.

"You never managed to get your high school certificate in the end, did you?" said Aizawa.

"No," said Misa, "there just wasn't any time to study for it."

"Well, then it's high time you got it," said Aizawa, "and you might as well get your degree as well, especially if you don't foresee yourself being a hero for the long term. However, what you should know is that the Directorate considers you and Shinsou to be an exceptional team, and that means its doors are always open to either of you. If Shinsou stays on, you could continue with your partnership. But if you are willing to work with someone else, there are options as well.

"You could resign altogether and get your degree, and then come back and rejoin the Directorate, or you could study and at the same time work for us part-time, or you could even continue working with us and do your studies part-time."

Misa was listening in amazement.

"Any of these choices would be rational," said Aizawa, "If you were to resign, financially you would have no problem paying for your studies, would you?"

"No," said Misa, "There's what I've been saving, and well … I actually have some money coming to me from my father. He left everything in his will to my brother, but now … it has come to me."

"Good," said Aizawa, "Well, think about it. You might want to talk to Shinsou and find out what his plans are. If you need help making a decision and want to discuss anything, come and see me."

"I will," said Misa, "thank you so much, Aizawa-san."

Aizawa got up to leave.

"Aizawa-san," Misa said casually, "did Shinsou say where he will be going, during the next few months?"

"No," said Aizawa, and then, noticing her dismal expression, said kindly, "I'm sure he'll tell you in time. Probably he didn't want to excite you while you're in hospital."

She nodded wanly.

"He cares about you," he said, making his way to the door, "He never left your side all that time that you were in a coma. And don't forget, he hijacked a police helicopter in order to save you." There was a hint of amusement in his voice as he said this, and then he was out the door, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Misa lay back against her pillows, feeling as if she would like to indulge in a good cry. Shinsou had been in the hospital constantly with her in the beginning, but ever since the raid he had been absent, save for that one visit. She had assumed that he was busy with work, but now it sounded as if he was doing something else in secret. And he was going away as well, and had told Aizawa, but not her.

She did not know what to make of it. Of course, I can't expect him to tell me everything, she thought. She felt she couldn't take their relationship for granted. People's hearts could change. Perhaps he didn't care for her in that way any more, or he had found someone else, and had not been able to bring himself to tell her yet because she was still in hospital.

"I had best prepare myself," she thought, "it hurt so much to lose Hideo. I can't even imagine what life without Hitoshi would be like. But no matter what, I'd have to move on. Better start thinking about the studies again, and planning for another future, so that it won't feel so bad when the blow comes."

.

.

Shinsou did come to visit again the following day. He seemed rather preoccupied, but not so much so that he didn't notice that Misa was in low spirits.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern, "What's the matter? You're looking down. The nurse said you hardly ate anything today."

"I'm all right," she said, not looking at him. She dreaded he would use his mind control to find out what was troubling her. "I'll admit I'm feeling a bit depressed. It must be the tedium of being in hospital for so long."

"Well, take heart then, it's not long more," he said encouragingly, "the doctor says you can be discharged in a couple of days."

.

.

He was there to accompany her home the evening she was discharged, carrying her bag and making sure she was all right. This made her feel even worse.

"It'll just make it so much harder to endure when he does go away," she reflected.

Shinsou had borrowed one of the Directorate cars so that he could drive her back. It had tinted windows, so that nobody could look in. When they arrived, she was transfixed to see a crowd of people gathered outside the building. Fujiwara, the Director-General, was standing at the entrance, talking to them. He looked extremely stressed.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"It's the media," said Shinsou, grimacing, "They're convinced that someone from the Directorate was instrumental in freeing the Hikari cult members, and they've been camping outside, trying to find out who it is."

"But that's you – " she broke off. "How did they find out?"

"I guess the police officers and heroes who saw me brainwashing the cult members have been saying things," said Shinsou in a resigned voice, "and the media know that Aizawa is working for the Directorate and was the one who got the heroes together for the raid. They must have put two and two together."

He had some difficulty driving the car into the underground carpark because the media were blocking the entrance, trying to interview the people in every car that went in and out. Fujiwara had stationed security guards there, and they were trying to make the journalists move aside.

"Shall I phase the car in?" asked Misa.

"Better not," said Shinsou, "I'm not sure if it hasn't gotten into the news that I have a sidekick who can phase. If so, those journalists are going to be extremely hard to beat off."

The security guards finally managed to move the journalists, and Shinsou drove the car into the carpark.

"Was it like this for those other cases you solved?" asked Misa, wide-eyed.

"The first case wasn't too bad," said Shinsou, "The second was worse than this." He looked at Misa, and smiled. "I guess I'm getting used to it. Fujiwara isn't, though." He chuckled.

They parked the car, and then took the elevator up to the top floor. They arrived at her small room, and she stood at the door for a few moments, looking around.

"Everything looks just as it used to," she said, wistfully.

"I've no doubt this is a poor room compared to what you must have had in your father's house," said Shinsou.

"I wasn't happy there," said Misa. "This room means more to me, the closest thing I've ever had to calling a real home."

Shinsou was looking at her. "Tired?"

"I'm all right," she said, avoiding his eyes.

"Come over to the window and sit down, then," said Shinsou, "there's something I need to talk to you about."

Here it comes, thought Misa.

When they were settled, he looked at her and said, "Things are changing."

"Yes, I know," she said unhappily, "Aizawa told me. Our group is going to be disbanded."

"Yes, they're tying up all the loose ends up now," he said, "The police still want me to help them interrogate the villains and some of the cult members, but that can be done on a gradual basis, and there won't be any assignments for us for a while."

She nodded.

"I don't think any of us has gone on leave for a long time," he continued, "I thought that, with time on our hands now, we could go for a holiday."

Misa looked at him in surprise. "Holiday?"

"Or a honeymoon, perhaps." There was a peculiar gleam in his eyes as he said this. He took a ring out of his pocket, and looked at her.

"But before there can be a honeymoon, there has to be a wedding first." He slipped the ring onto her finger, took her hands in his, and looked into her stunned face.

"Marry me, Misa," he said quietly, "Give me a chance to make you happy. You've been patient with me for a long time. I know you're always there in the shadows looking out for me, never putting yourself forward, always thinking of me first. It's time I put you first, instead."

Misa was staring at him in shock.

"I know you never wanted to be a hero," said Shinsou, "it's time you followed your own dreams and went for those studies you'd planned for. You should get your high school cert, and then look into getting a degree.

"I've been to see Fujita," he continued, "He's keen to have you. He says he can offer you a variety of jobs while you do your degree part-time, if you want. Whether it's rescue work, which he says your Quirk is perfect for, or being a research assistant, or doing administrative work. He says he's willing to arrange things for you, since you saved his life, after all."

Misa was in a daze. "You … you bought me a ring … you went to see Fujita …"

She looked at him. "But … what about you?"

"Oh, I'll be around," said Shinsou, "I think I'm going to have to lie low for a while, anyway – my reputation seems to be growing, despite my attempts to remain anonymous. I probably can still do some interrogation work, commuting down to Tokyo. I'd been considering spending more time at rescue centres anyway; I want to see where else my Quirk can be applied other than intelligence work. For example, in trauma relief."

She looked doubtful.

"Don't pretend," she said, "How could doing trauma relief in a rescue centre compare to what you do here? You're giving up your undercover hero work here in the Directorate for me. I can't let you do that. I remember the Sports Festival. I know what being a hero means to you."

He laughed.

"Those days when I was fifteen and dreaming all those dreams were a long time ago," he said, "At the time, I was ready to declare war on everyone, and cut down anyone in my path who blocked my way to becoming a hero. I've grown some, since then. The reality doesn't turn out to be what you expected ... I never became the hero with all the recognition that I thought I would be, but you're right – I've forged my own path. In the intelligence community, I'm respected. I have a role within the Directorate that no one else can fill, and everyone acknowledges this, even those who don't like me. I've nothing left to prove."

He gave her hands a squeeze.

"Even so, there's more to life than being a hero. I realised that even more when you nearly died … I almost lost you. I've made mistakes in my relationships in the past. I'm not going to make those same mistakes again."

Misa sat up. She leaned forward, and looked earnestly at him.

"You know, since joining the Directorate, I've discovered that I don't mind being a hero, after all," she said, "I'd rather you didn't give up your work here. And I don't care as much about the studies as I used to. I know it's dreadful to have so little ambition, but … what matters most to me are people ... I want to be with the people I love. I want to be with you. I don't really care what I do, so long as you're there."

He smiled, and drew her closer to him.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be able to work something out, somehow," he said.

And as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, she had a glimpse through the window of the stars outside in the night sky, and the thought occurred to her that perhaps, in this life, she was finally going to have a chance to find her way home, after all.

.

.

~ THE END ~


End file.
